"Garment workers stage protest after factory ceases operations", 20 December 2019

Nearly 500 garment workers of Sees Global (KH) Limited in Kandal province’s Khsach Kandal district are staging daily protests to seek compensation after management announced the factory was sold to another company.

Seang Rithy, Cambodian Youth Power Union League president, ... said that 500 out of the company’s 700 workers have been staging the protests since December 14 to ensure that they are compensated.

He noted that the company last month announced its closure and said the new owner planned to set up a factory in another part of the province.

“When the company announced it was shuttering operations, it did not mention compensations and other benefits and that is why the workers are protesting,” he said, noting that that company cannot escape paying the workers even though it was closing down.

... “We do not know who they are and they came to disrupt the protest by arguing with the workers before hitting them,” he said. “Now the three injured workers are better.”

Mai Chan, a worker, ... suggested that the owner of the new company could hire the 700 workers.

“We suggest to the new management to intervene in our case,” he said. “We need our compensation wages if the company closes this location.”

The company could not be reached for comment ...

However, Lim Sarum, chief of the labour resolution section at the provincial labour office yesterday said the department is meeting with representatives of the workers and the company...