Khmer International Garment Ltd closed its Sihanoukville factory Monday after three years of operation, letting go about 200 employees, government officials said Monday.
The company is moving operations to its Phnom Penh factory and has guaranteed workers employment if they move to the capital, factory workers said.
On Monday morning, Sihanoukville’s labor and social affairs office stopped containers of machinery and material from being shipped out of the factory after workers claimed they had not received pay for 22 days of work.
According to Lay Sophearom, a supervisor at the factory, the company had already transferred about half of its equipment to its Phnom Penh factory.
By late Monday, the company agreed to pay the employees. Lay Sophearom, 28, said workers were pleased to receive their salaries before the Pchum Ben holiday.
Lay Sophearom said he would move to Phnom Penh with the company, but said many workers do not want to move.
“It is hard to go to work in Phnom Penh and be away from your spouse and children,” Lay Sophearom said.
Repeated calls to the company went unanswered.
Sihanoukville Governor Say Hak said Monday that he has received reports recently of garment factories closing.
Experts say that reports of garment factories closing this time of year are not surprising because most big orders for the Christmas shopping season in Europe and North America have already been shipped. Around October, they say, business typically dries up.
But they also cautioned that the industry will go through changes as worldwide garment quotas expire at the end of 2004.
“Over the next year and a half, the bottom feeders who work primarily on subcontracts will shake out,” said a garment industry expert. “The factories that work with major buyers will be OK.”
