"Factory workers seek help as ministry says owner did not file notice", 8 September 2020

While hundreds of workers from the shuttered Violet Apparel factory submitted a petition to the European Union’s Delegation to Cambodia seeking help securing unpaid benefits, a ministry official has said that the factory’s owner has not filed the necessary paperwork exempting him from paying workers.

Due to the strain on the garment industry in the wake of Covid-19, the Labor Ministry sent a letter to the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) saying that notice and compensation payments could be delayed if a factory could not afford to pay. It followed a directive from the ministry issued at the beginning of June allowing employers to delay seniority indemnity payments until 2021…

Ung Chanthoeun, a worker representative at Violet Apparel (Cambodia)., Ltd factory, said she and about 200 others delivered a petition to the EU’s delegation in Phnom Penh asking that they push European brands produced at the factory to help workers secure benefit payments.

“We submit the petition to the European Union because Violet Apparel factory produces brands of clothes including Nike, C&A, and Carter to export to the EU,” Chanthoeun said, adding that the group had filed several petitions since July seeking a resolution from the Labor Ministry and prime minister’s cabinet.

… Mey Sopheaktra, secretary-general of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, said … that in negotiations attended by a representative from the alliance, Violet Apparel’s owner seemed willing to find a solution with workers until they received the letter from the Labor Ministry’s Inspection Department making benefit payments optional…