No consensus on next move in SL drama
After the management of an embattled garment factory this week refused to follow a government order to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, unionists and observers are at a divergence of opinion over how the state should respond. “It’s fairly unprecedented,” Dave Welsh, country director for labour rights group Solidarity Center, said. “The government has sort of gone out on a limb.” Three days after a deadly November 12 garment worker riot in the capital, during which a bystander was killed by a police bullet, the Ministry of Labour sent an order to SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd dictating that it rehire the workers within 15 days. … Kong Athit, vice president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), which represents a large majority of SL employees – including the 19 in question – agrees that suspending SL’s exporting licence would prove counterproductive. But in his experience, Cambodian courts are ill-equipped in handling labour disputes. …
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-consensus-next-move-sl-drama
