More than 300 workers from an electronics factory in Kampong Speu brought a week-long protest to the doorstep of the Ministry of Labour yesterday, demanding the government force their employer to re-hire a dismissed unionist and improve working conditions.

Free Trade Union head Yung Leap said the workers’ priority was that the company, I Sound Cable Cambo Co Ltd, re-employ Tak Kim Chheng, a worker and the deputy chief of the FTU in the factory, who was sacked last month.

The protesters also sought compensation for workplace-related injuries, an easier process to secure annual leave and a three-month maternity leave payment in one lump sum, to help new mothers cover hospital bills.

Chheng said workers had frequently come to him with complaints before he was fired. “I was fired . . . because I always demand better working conditions for workers,” he said. “It is unfair.”

Oy Sinat, the chief of administration at the company, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Worker Khat Molin said she now feared for her job. “Now the employers ordered us to come back to work; if not, they will fire us,” she said.

A letter from the ministry to the protesters said it would find a solution for them today and asked them to return to work.

Ministry spokesman Hong Sour could not be reached for comment.