Union representatives file complaint against leaders over pilfering
Two union organizers have filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court claiming that the senior leaders of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) have embezzled money that was meant to be paid to workers in compensation following a dispute with factory owners. The allegations against the leaders of CCAWDU come just weeks before a planned nationwide garment strike calling for a $160 minimum wage, in which CCAWDU and seven other unions have pledged to call on workers to stay at home for one week following the three-day Khmer New Year holiday in April. … The complaint by former CCAWDU officials Um Visal and Roeun Chanthan, dated March 3 and also signed by 29 garment workers, alleges that Ath Thorn, president of CCAWDU, Kong Athit, secretary-general of CCAWDU and Ek Pheakdey, another CCAWDU official, stole $92,929 from workers following an industrial dispute that was eventually settled by the union. The dispute began following the dismissal of 61 workers from the E-Garment factory in Phnom Penh between 2007 and 2008, and was eventually settled in March 2013 after the factory was ordered to rehire or pay compensation to the workers, according to the complaint. Mr. Visal and Mr. Chanthan claim that the CCAWDU leaders took a cut of the settlement before distributing the compensation to the workers involved in the dispute. …
