SL Garment Protesters Gain Little From Talks at Labor Ministry

A two-day meeting between union leaders, senior government officials and representatives of the SL Gar­ment Factory failed Tuesday to reach a solution for factory workers, who have been on strike since early August and on Monday demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom Penh residence. Ath Thorn, director of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU), said that while the meeting—which began Monday in an attempt to diffuse a tense standoff between some 2,000 garment workers and 200 riot police near Mr. Hun Sen’s home—was not a complete failure, representatives of the factory refused to consider back pay for the three months the workers have been striking. “If the company [had] agreed to compensate [the workers] during the strike, this would solve all the problems,” Mr. Thorn said Tuesday after the meeting, which was also attended by Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong, Labor Minister Ith Samheng, about 10 union leaders and the factory’s owner, Wong Hong Ming. … Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said the idea of getting paid for work you haven’t done is “unreasonable.” …

 Ben Woods and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sl-garment-protesters-gain-little-from-talks-at-labor-ministry-45708/