Garment Workers Rally for Third Day to Sack Factory Manager

23 August 2012
The Cambodia Daily
Clothes / Economy and commerce / Garments and textiles / Gender / Industries / Informal migration for labor / Judiciary and courts / Labor / Local workers abroad / Manufacturing / Offshore recruitment and employment / Trade / Women in development
Bangladesh / clothing manufacturers / Faruk Ahmad / female factory workers / Gap / garment factory workers / immigration offences / labor workers / Ocean Garment factory / sexual abuse / sexual harassment

More than 2,00 female workers from a factory in Phnom Penh that makes clothes for the U.S. brand Gap protested yesterday for a third straight day demanding that the firm sack a manager at the factory for allegedly abusing workers. Lining Russian Boulevard near the Ocean Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district, workers held pictures of the accused manager, Faruk Ahmad, with his eyes gouged out and a red “X” on his face. … Mr. Ahmad, who is a Bangladeshi citizen, has totally denied the allegations against him, and his lawyer yesterday urged the women to take the matter up with the court. … …Phnom Penh municipal chief Touch Naruth addressed the crowd promising a “complete investigation” of the factory’s staff. “I have discussed with top officials in the government that we will find a resolution following the law,” Mr. Naruth said, adding that police were currently investigating 36 Bangladeshi managers and supervisors at Ocean Garment for immigration offences. …