Cambodian PM meets thousands of garment factory workers on Int'l Labor Day
- Thmey Thmey
- May 1, 2019 9:40 AM
PHNOM PENH,Cambodia-- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on Wednesday celebrated the International Labor Day with some 3,700 garment workers in a factory in southern Kandal province.
At the event, Hun Sen allowed workers to take selfies with him, and he also danced and had a solidarity lunch with them.
"To celebrate the day, some choose to have solidarity lunches at factories, others opt to stay at home, and the others rally to demand this or that. This is the right that has been carried out in our country," the prime minister said.
In a separate event, approximately 2,000 people, mostly garment and footwear factory workers, gathered and marched near the historic site of Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh to demand better working conditions and higher wages.
"We urge the government to set the minimum wage of 250 U.S. dollars per month for workers in the garment and footwear sector," said Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation which organized the event.
The current minimum wage for workers is 182 U.S. dollars per month. The garment and footwear sector, the kingdom's largest foreign exchange earner, is composed of more than 1,000 factories with some 750,000 workers, mostly women, according to the Ministry of Labor.
(Source: Xinhua and photo from Prime Minister Facebook)
