More than 10,000 workers of Taieasy International Co Ltd’s factory in Krakor district, in Pursat province agreed on Tuesday to return to work after provincial governor Mao Thonin made a compromise.
On October 12, the workers had protested and demanded that four conditions be fulfilled before they returned to work. These are that they receive a year-end bonus, an allowance of 500 riel ($0.13) per day, be given a five per cent seniority allowance and 15kg of milled rice a month.
The governor told The Post on Tuesday: “I went to meet them on October 13 to help put together a compromise, and yesterday, they agreed to return to work.
“I brought together representatives from the factory, workers’ and union. The factory party agreed to pay the wages demanded by the workers based on October 18,” he said.
A worker Sok Sokhom said she and other workers had agreed to return to work after the factory agreed to fulfil the four conditions.
After the provincial governor intervened, she said the factory agreed to pay wages and some money to the workers on October 18. “But I hope the factory will honour their promise,” she said.
Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) president Pav Sina said while the workers had returned to work, he had also received a complaint from them.
In the complaint, they claimed that the garment factory had seriously violated the workers’ rights and even exploited the benefits of the workers.
The factory dared to break the law because powerful officials were completely behind the factory, he claimed.
He called on the government to help check and root out the culture of harnessing the power of unscrupulous officials.
“I will help them on this matter because they made a complaint to me. I will write a letter to the factory’s buyers so that they can inspect its operations again.
“There is a serious violation of their rights. [The factory] looks down on them and exploits workers. Besides this, we will submit a letter to international organisations doing this work to urge the factory to abide by the labour laws of Cambodia,” he said.
