Unrest among disabled security guards at SL Garment Factory
A team of disabled security guards hired to protect the embattled SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh is seeking the formalization of their employment and an end to what they claim is the factory’s exploitation of their impairments. In November—at the height of an occasionally violent, months-long strike by SL staff—the company stopped using a security firm owned by Prime Minister Hun Sen’s sister and installed a team of 130 mostly disabled guards hired personally by factory shareholder Meas Sotha. After replacing a factory manager in June, Mr. Sotha became a focal point of the SL protests. Along with demands for higher wages and a lunch stipend, factory workers campaigned to have Mr. Sotha removed, saying that his emergence at the factory coincided with an increased security presence and a diminished tolerance for union activity. Now, with no job contract and a wage of $100 a month, the disabled security guards that Mr. Sotha hired to protect the factory are turning against the unpopular shareholder. … “Who do I work for? That is what I want to know,” said chief of security Chhneas Dara, 46, who lost his left leg to a landmine in Pailin province in 1988. … “Meas Sotha uses us to protect the factory against the workers because he knows that the workers don’t want to hit disabled people. And if they do hit us, it is very easy for Meas Sotha to blame them,” Mr. Dara said. … Sot Samoth, an undersecretary of state at the Labor Ministry, said Monday that by law, security guards must have a contract agreement, either with a security agency or directly with the factory. …
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unrest-among-disabled-security-guards-at-sl-garment-factory-56892/
