About 600 employees of a South Korean-owned garment factory rallied in front of the country’s Phnom Penh embassy on Monday calling on Seoul to intervene in their dispute with factory management.
The protesters were among 1,200 workers at the Cambo Kotop garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district who have been on strike since December 16 to demand the reinstatement of five union representatives who were fired that day.
The Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW), the union behind the protest, says the five representatives were dismissed because they were planning to lead a strike at the factory, which employs a total of 2,500 people.
The striking workers, who are refusing to return to work despite a December 23 court injunction ordering them to do so, first gathered outside the Labor Ministry at about 8 a.m. Monday before traveling to the South Korean Embassy. Once they arrived, dozens of police and Daun Penh district security guards prevented them from approaching the entrance.
With no embassy officials coming out to receive their petition, the workers moved on to the National Assembly at about 11 a.m., where opposition lawmakers Chan Cheng and Chea Poch met with eight worker representatives.
CUMW secretary-general Chheng Chhorn, who led the protest, said the union could not accept the factory’s decision to dismiss its representatives.
“At previous meetings, the company did not take the workers back because they claimed that they caused problems that made factory lose profit,” he said.
Vong Sovann, deputy secretary-general of the Labor Ministry’s labor conflict department, said authorities had asked the factory to reinstate the union representatives but management refused.
“Both sides are in the wrong because the factory suspended the workers without permission from the ministry and the workers joined the strike without informing the authorities,” he said.
The factory’s administrative director, Pich Sokheng, could not be reached.
