Activists Blame Short Contracts for Strikes
Labor activists at the bi-annual Buyers Forum in Phnom Penh on Thursday said that short-term contracts in Cambodia’s garment industry were fueling the high number of strikes affecting the industry. “Most of [the disputes] are over dismissals or dismissals of union leaders and the reason why they’re [annoyed] is because they are kept on fixed duration contracts, which are maintained against the Labor Law,” said Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, who attended the forum, which brings together international clothing brands, unions and manufacturers to discuss issues facing the region’s garment sector. … But, Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), disagreed that short-term contracts were the reason for strike action in the industry and said that unions should be more willing to negotiate with employers through legal channels rather than holding strikes. “It’s more a question of getting the unions to negotiate rather than to strike,” he said. He added that while the Buyers Forum seem to tackle these same issues each year with no resolution in sight, the unions were starting to understand that it was the brands—not the manufacturers—who have the upper hand in dealing with wage issues. … According to the GMAC, there have been 83 factory strikes during the first eight months of 2013.
Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/activists-blame-short-contracts-for-strikes-41832/
