Unions and garment manufacturers Tuesday accepted a deal from the government to increase monthly wages for all garment and shoe factory workers by $6, thereby averting called-for strikes. The offer comes one day after a meeting between unions, the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia and government officials that failed to produce an agreement.
The $6 “allowance” will affect all workers and was suggested by Prime Minister Hun Sen, wrote Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng in a statement issued Tuesday but dated Monday. The deal will be made official at a meeting of the Labor Advisory Committee on Friday, Ith Sam Heng wrote.
GMAC President Van Sou Ieng said by telephone Tuesday that he agreed with the pay increase.
“We will comply with it for the benefit of the workers,” Van Sou Ieng said. “The raise will affect the factory industry. So, I hope the workers will be more productive,” he said.
Cambodian Confederation of Unions Secretary-General and Free Trade Union President Chea Mony said the increase was acceptable. The FTU had been the first union to demand a wage increase, seeking a $5 increase to the minimum wage. Unions on Monday rejected a $4 monthly bonus to all workers offered by GMAC on the grounds that it could be taken away by managers, but Chea Mony said Tuesday that the new offer was acceptable because it was going to be made permanent by the Labor Advisory Committee.
Despite the government agreeing that wages needed to be raised above the amount the FTU was seeking, Ith Sam Heng accused Chea Mony and CCU President Rong Chhun of pressing for the wage increases for political reasons.
“To resolve this, I have advised legal teams to study whether to pursue legal action against the [CCU],” Ith Sam Heng wrote in his statement.
The CCU, of which the FTU is part, is well known to be affiliated with the SRP; the CPP minister’s accusations of political maneuvering were not extended to CPP-affiliated workers groups that just recently began asking for pay increases well above the $5 the CCU demanded.
Chea Mony said the $6 announcement was a CPP attempt to take credit for helping workers when it was really the non-CPP affiliated unions that forced the issue.
“[Hun Sen] wanted to show that he is taking care of the workers,” Chea Mony said. “Without our initiative the prime minister would not have suggested the raise,” he said, adding that only last week CPP-affiliated unions said they didn’t need an increase.
SRP President Sam Rainsy also characterized the allowance as a political ploy by the CPP.
“It is a joke. The workers are not beggars,” he said. “We are not happy.”
He added that the SRP will call for the minimum wage for garment workers and civil servants to be raised to $75 at a rally planned for Sunday.
Ministry of Labor Undersecretary of State Oum Mean dismissed Chea Mony and Sam Rainsy’s claims, saying that Hun Sen’s decision was based on recent inflation, not the upcoming election.
“Samdech Hun Sen has given the allowance based on the economic situation changing. It affects the workers’ living standards,” he said.
Last week Chhoun Mom Thol, president of the CPP-affiliated Cambodian Union Federation, said the increase was not only unnecessary but illegal as there had been an agreement to freeze wages until 2010. On Tuesday, however, Chhoun Mom Thol claimed that a month ago he had requested a $15 increase, and added that the government’s $6 is both not enough and acceptable.
“A $6 increase does not satisfy the current rate of inflation,” he said. “I have discussed it with colleagues. It is acceptable. The government has responded to our demands.”
Chhoun Mom Thol added that no union should take credit for the raise. “It is the workers’ credit because the workers’ demanded it.”
