The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) on December 29 issued a statement, informing all stakeholders that the industry was unable to continue operations because six trade unions have conducted illegal and violent actions against factory property and forced workers out of work.
"Since December 25, six trade unions have staged illegal and violent actions including destroying factory property, inciting workers to strike, and forcing workers to stop their work as well as their apparent impunity by the Ministry of Labour have left us with no other option but to close," Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.
The six labour unions with the pro-opposition tendency have led tens of thousands of garment workers to go on strikes since December 25 after the government decided to raise a monthly minimum wage in the garment sector to 95 USD from the current 80 USD, but those trade unions disagreed with the new wage hike and demanded the government to force the GMAC to double worker's wage to 160 USD from 2014.
Garment sector, the country's largest foreign currency earner, consists of about 500 factories employing some 510,600 workers.
The industry earned 5 billion USD in the first eleven months of this year.-VNA
"Since December 25, six trade unions have staged illegal and violent actions including destroying factory property, inciting workers to strike, and forcing workers to stop their work as well as their apparent impunity by the Ministry of Labour have left us with no other option but to close," Xinhua news agency quoted the statement as saying.
The six labour unions with the pro-opposition tendency have led tens of thousands of garment workers to go on strikes since December 25 after the government decided to raise a monthly minimum wage in the garment sector to 95 USD from the current 80 USD, but those trade unions disagreed with the new wage hike and demanded the government to force the GMAC to double worker's wage to 160 USD from 2014.
Garment sector, the country's largest foreign currency earner, consists of about 500 factories employing some 510,600 workers.
The industry earned 5 billion USD in the first eleven months of this year.-VNA
