Kampuchea Hundreds Of Workers Strike No Fruit, The Killer: Quit!

In recent years, China has gradually transformed from "made in China" to "created in China". According to statistics, the number of patent applications in China has ranked first in the world in the past 7 years. With the change of China, the world manufacturing industry has gradually shifted from China to Southeast Asia and other countries. Kampuchea is a big manufacturing country. In recent years, manufacturing accounts for 78% of total exports, and also accounts for 40% of Kampuchea's total GDP.

But there are frequent strikes in Kampuchea recently.


Strike at a word


Foreign media reported that in July 31st, 280 workers in a garment factory in Phnom Penh had been on strike for 5 days and made 12 requests.


These include: unable to force workers to work overtime, factories should be equipped with medical environment, increase the number of fans in factories and so on. Workers say the factory is too inhumane, forcing pregnant women to work overtime without compensation and wearing a particular work uniform.


They have repeatedly asked the boss to solve these problems, but they have been refused. Even if the officials of the Ministry of labour participate in the negotiations, the final thing has not yet been settled. Due to the ineffective consultation with the factory, 200 people have resigned so far.


In fact, there have been several strikes in Kampuchea in recent years.


In September 7, 2018, more than 2000 workers gathered at a garment factory in Phnom Penh District, Phnom Penh, Kampuchea. In December 26th of the same year, more than 1000 workers went on strike in a factory in Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Kampuchea. The aim was to seek subsidies from their bosses. In July 12, 2019, a thousand garment workers in a dry clothing factory in Lila province went on strike, and put forward 18 demands for their work. On the 13 day of the same month, more than 100 workers of a casino in West Port went on strike together, and complained that their workload and wages did not match.


After a series of strikes, the mayor of Phnom Penh ordered the local government to inspect workers in the garment factories in July 14th.


In fact, Kampuchea has enacted relevant laws, setting a minimum wage of $182, ensuring that pregnant women workers rest for 3 months and pay 120% of their wages. But recently, it seems that not all factories have complied with this system.


If such a strike breaks out frequently, not only will it cause huge losses to domestic factories, it will also hurt some foreign investors' concerns.


Who can stand this factory?


According to relevant information, Kampuchea has been taking the "Asian factory" road for more than a decade. The main products are clothing and footwear. The footwear industry is the pillar industry of Kampuchea's economy. About 80% of its total exports are related, and about 800 thousand workers are employed.


At present, many brands such as UNIQLO, Adidas, Gap, H&M and so on are all set up in Kampuchea.


In 2018, clothing and footwear exports in Kampuchea amounted to US $10 billion, an increase of 24% over the 2017 US $8 billion. Among them, the EU is its main export destination, occupying 46% of the total exports of clothing and footwear in Kampuchea, followed by the United States 24%, Canada 9% and Japan 8%.


Opportunities and risks in Kampuchea

As more and more Chinese come to Kampuchea to invest in all walks of life, such as small supermarkets, restaurants, haircuts, hotels and so on, because of the influx of Chinese people into Kampuchea, the local people are a few unhappy families. People who could make a living by opening a barber shop and a small wholesale shop were taken away from business, and some local hotels and taverns were also bought, causing concern among the locals.

Today, the Ministry of labour is about to issue a foreign labor law to protect Kampuchea people's jobs and protect Kampuchea's jobs.


Recently, a spokesman for the Ministry of labour of Kampuchea said that the Ministry of labour would issue decrees to prohibit foreigners from engaging in small scale self-employed businesses.


According to Ministry of labour spokesman Hsin soo, the Ministry of labour will promulgate decrees in the near future. Kampuchea will prohibit foreigners from engaging in some small-scale self-employed businesses, and also prohibit foreigners from being the post of company personnel director.


Among them, 10 occupations prohibited by foreigners include taxi drivers, toddlers, motorcyclists, hairdressers, roadside vendors, wholesale small businesses and so on.


In addition, according to the relevant provisions of the Ministry of labour, enterprises will be fined for tagging signboards, menus, bills and products without using Cambodia.
 

In this regard, Kampuchea netizens are divided into two groups, and some people strongly support it. They believe that this decree is protecting the interests of local people, and many people will get job opportunities, especially those who have no jobs in Kampuchea.


Others believe that as long as the foreigners have enough money, nothing is a problem and they can still run their small businesses in Kampuchea.


Some people have speculated that once the decree is implemented in Kampuchea, it may be like Thailand in recent years, triggering a large-scale wave of "foreign labor leaving", which will make Kampuchea's shops and enterprises dependent on foreign workers face the dilemma of "no one is available".