"Garment Workers Strike Over Unpaid Wages Amid Virus Pandemic", 26 March 2020

Nearly 1,000 garment workers protested outside a Phnom Penh factory on Wednesday after the owner failed to pay their regular wages, which the company said was due to declining payments from buyers during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Factory workers employed by Canteran Apparel (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. protested after the company failed to pay their full wages for the most recent two-week pay period, worker Sann Sopha told VOD...

“Workers asked the company to make a written promise with them but the company did not dare to make a contract with us,” she added. “The company just gave excuses for this and that”...

Kim Bou, head of administration at the factory, said the company has lost buyers during the global economic slowdown resulting from the spread of Covid-19,...

Bou said Canteran was facing a financial crisis and thus could not pay workers on time, but he said the company was trying to find funds to pay workers’ salaries...

Sopha told ... that workers said they will face difficulties managing daily expenses, such as rent, utilities, children’s school fees and bank loans if their employer does not pay their full, regular wages.

Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union Movement of Workers, said the company is violating the law by not paying workers their full wages. 

Sina said the Labor Ministry should find an immediate solution to help workers who are struggling with their expenses...