Factory chiefs complain of rising inflation (Date: 24 Jun 10)
Wednesday, 23 June 2010 15:03 Meas Sokchea Phnom Penh Post
A LETTER from the head of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia to Chea Mony, a union leader who last week threatened to organise a strike over demands for a 40 percent minimum wage hike, states that recent price increases have affected factory owners more than workers.
But Ken Loo declined to say Tuesday whether the letter, dated June 16, offered any insight into GMAC’s position on the proposed minimum wage increase, which he has not yet disclosed.
Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, distributed the letter on Tuesday during a protest involving more than 2,000 workers from the Ocean Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district. The workers are demanding the reinstatement of seven union leaders who were suspended on June 12 after objecting to the introduction of overtime hours.
Chea Mony last week sent his own letter to the Interior Ministry announcing that he planned to organise a three-day sit-down strike beginning July 13 to press his demand that the monthly minimum wage be raised from US$50 to $70.
GMAC’s letter, according to an unofficial translation, acknowledges that the minimum wage is an important issue for “garment workers throughout Cambodia”, and that the “increase of daily living expenses has put pressure on the workers”, but goes on to say that these pressures are even greater for factory owners.
“The increase of expenses is making the GMAC members also face a lot of difficulties – more difficulties than the workers. All the expenses are increasing due to inflation and the increasing prices of goods and services,” the letter states.
Ken Loo said Tuesday that rising overhead costs for materials, electricity and the transportation of goods have hit factory owners hard in recent months.
“The price of cotton has gone up 30 percent in the last three or four months,” he said. “If inflation affects the individual, imagine how it affects the company – it is compounded many times over.”
Chea Mony said Tuesday that he was pleased the letter from Ken Loo had reiterated GMAC’s willingness to discuss the proposed wage increase Go to Top Cambodian Factory Sourcing GAP violates Union' s Rights (Date: 23 Jun 10)
Factory makes GAP's products who owned by a Bangladesh investor in Dangkor district named Ocean Garment Co.,Ltd had suspended seven union leaders and activists who affiliated to Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia on the late afternoon of Jun 13, 2010.
On Jun 15, there is 95% of around 2,000 garment workers held fresh demonstrations at the Ocean Garment Factory in the capital’s Dangkor district on Monday, calling for the reinstatement of seven union representatives suspended after protesting the introduction of overtime hours.
Mann Seng Hak, secretary general of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, said during the protest that the factory owner violated the Labour Law by suspending the representatives.
“Based on labour laws, the company cannot suspend workers before sending their names to the Ministry of Labour,” he said, and argued that workers could only be fired with the ministry’s approval.
Sam Ty, chief of the workers’ syndicate at the factory and one of the seven suspended representatives, accused Lay Sokchea, the company’s chief of administration, of lobbying factory owners to prevent members of his union from working.
When contacted on Monday, Lay Sokchea dismissed the accusation and defended the factory owner’s decision to suspend the representatives.
“I cannot lobby factory owners to suspend the workers,” he said. “The factory owner saw their activities with his own eyes. The representatives made the mistake of stirring up workers and lobbying them to not work. They did not do their duty.”
He added that the company had delivered the names of those who were suspended to the Ministry of Labour, but that the ministry had not yet reviewed the information from the company.
Va Yuvavadhana, chief of the ministry’s Labour Litigation Office, said the suspension of the unionists could very well have been illegal, saying it “did not make any mistakes”.
The protest was dispersed at around 8:30am by both police and military police.
Upto today [Jun 22] there is no resolution yet for this issue. Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia would like to appeal for supporting from the consumers who use the GAp to push this branch to respect workers' rights and make sure that the products they are selling is out of workers' grievances.
This factory has forced workers to work over time up to 4 to 6 hours more at least everyday since the begining of this year. By law, after 8 hours normal working then workers can work more 2 hours over time base on voluntary but workers have informed us that they work everyday up to 14 or 16 hours by forcing in order to reach the production which is targeted by the orders.
So with this regard, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia would like to invite GAP [Not Cambodian GAP Rep] to come to Cambodia and intervent to solve the problem. What we demand is to get this factory follows the law that Cambodia has and ratified of the international standard. Go to Top ILO calls for murder inquiries (Date: 22 Jun 10)
 Phnom Penh Post
Monday, 21 June 2010 15:02 Cameron Wells
Committee urges full, fair investigation of three assassinations THE International Labour Organisation has renewed calls to immediately drop charges against two men accused of killing union leader Chea Vichea and for the Supreme Court to “rapidly review” an appeal from a man convicted of the killing of union leader Ros Sovannareth.
In a report released Friday, following a review of Cambodia’s compliance with a convention ensuring workers’ right to form unions without interference from employers or officials, the ILO also urged that the killer of a third unionist, Hy Vuthy, be brought to justice.
As part of two weeks of meetings in Geneva assessing various countries’ levels of compliance with a handful of conventions, the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations earlier this month reviewed Cambodia’s implementation of Convention 87, which concerns workers’ free association and collective-bargaining rights.
The committee last week said that the government had failed to submit a report outlining steps taken to meet the convention’s requirements. The conclusions issued Friday by the Committee on the Application of Standards, however, noted that the report was submitted June 7, but that it had yet to be analysed by ILO reviewers.
“The committee regretted the lack of information relating to the long-awaited independent investigations to be carried out into the assassinations of the trade unionists Chea Vichea, Ros Sovannareth and Hy Vuthy,” Friday’s report says.
The committee “urged the Government … to ensure full and impartial investigations into the murders of the abovementioned Cambodian trade union leaders and to bring, not only the perpetrators, but also the instigators of these heinous crimes to justice.”
Chea Vichea, then-head of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, was gunned down in 2004 while buying a newspaper near Wat Lanka. Two men, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, were convicted of the crime later that year, but the Supreme Court ordered their provisional release in December 2008, citing contradictory evidence.
Ros Sovannareth, a union leader at the Trinunggal Komara Garment Factory, was shot dead by two assailants while driving his motorcycle on Kampuchea Krom Boulevard in May 2004. Thach Saveth was convicted in that case in 2005 and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Hy Vuthy, FTU president at the Suntex Garment Factory, was shot and killed in 2007. No one has been arrested for that slaying.
Moeun Tola, head of the labour programme at the Cambodian Legal Education Centre, said he agreed that the case against Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun should be dropped immediately.
“The government should drop the charges against the two scapegoats,” he said. “The evidence against both men was not there. The government needs to strengthen the judicial system in Cambodia.”
He expressed hope that the report would prompt the government to pursue all three cases more aggressively, despite the fact that similar calls were issued by the ILO in 2009.
“If the government had a real purpose to arrest the real killers, it is very possible,” he said. “If they escape to Malaysia or Singapore, the government can still find them. It is possible.”
Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour, declined to comment on the ILO’s report on Sunday.Go to Top |
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