Just during the long holiday of the National Day, the Chinese-owned TARAL clothing factory in the province of Gongbishi County Road 3 in Cambodia erupted a large-scale strike.
Why are Cambodian workers on strike?
According to Cambodian media, the direct source of the strike was the new rule introduced by the new management of the Chinese-owned factory "a $10 fine for a minute of delay."
According to worker representatives, the monthly salary of workers in the factory is only US$208 (the minimum wage standard in Cambodia in 2025), and the US$10 fine is equivalent to half of the daily salary and the total weekly food expenses, posing a heavy burden on bottom-level workers.
Moreover, the reason for workers' dissatisfaction is that the new management also canceled lunch subsidies, forced production targets to be increased, reduced incentives, and even prohibited workers from bringing medicines and drinking water into the factory.
Therefore, after these new regulations for Chinese-funded factories came out, about 7,000 local workers in Cambodia collectively refused to enter the factory area, and some workers gathered to block the road to protest against these management systems introduced by the factory.
A female worker said in an interview with Cambodian media, "Commuter buses are often late, traffic congestion is the norm, and being late is almost inevitable."
She also said, "Since the new management team of the Chinese-invested factory took office, factory inspections became more and more severe, the working atmosphere continued to deteriorate, and after the cancellation of lunch subsidies, the meal would cost more than $ 2 per day, plus the risk of fines, and could not survive at all."
Striking workers clearly put forward five core demands:
Restoration of lunch subsidy;
2. cancellation of the 1 minute $10 fine scheme and resumption of the previous agreement of “withdrawal until more than 30 minutes late”;
③ Stop forcing production increases and bonus cuts;
④ It is allowed to bring medicines and drinking water into the factory;
⑤ Require management to comply with the Cambodia Labor Law.
And when this news spread in the country, our netizens on this side, almost all of the opinion on the matter is this:
After this happened, Cambodian media analysis said that after years of rights protection practice, Cambodia workers have significantly improved their organizational capabilities, and they have gradually gained a clear understanding of the basic rights and interests protected by labor laws. However, some Chinese managers directly applied the domestic "fine factory management" model, ignoring the reality of poor local transportation conditions and strong awareness of labor rights and interests, which ultimately led to conflicts.
Moreover, it is noteworthy that some Chinese-funded factories have also been exposed to illegal situations in Cambodia such as "overtime work 159 hours per month" and "voluntary overtime work without pay", far exceeding the mandatory requirement of "overtime work no more than 36 hours per month" in the Cambodia Labor Law.
After this incident occurred, Zeng Bolin, director of the Labor Bureau of the Province of Real Estate in Cambodia, led a working group to the scene for coordination that day.
According to Brin, secondary issues such as the management of passenger cars have been preliminarily resolved, but the core demand for labor has been deeply negotiated between the two sides. he also said that after the mediation, the incident has settled and workers have gradually returned to work.