They are employed in the Shen Zhou garment factory in Phnom Penh. 11 hour days are a regular occurrence for many of these workers, who choose to take the daily overtime option to make ends meet. Survival on a basic wage of £39 a month is a struggle, especially for mothers. Many live apart from their families and send money home to the provinces where children are being cared for by relatives. Factory-owned apartment blocks are filled with workers sharing a few small rooms, who hope to one day to leave and move on to a better life. One worker says she hopes to save enough to run a small shop, another to move back to the provinces to live with her family and have children.
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Prem Sreyroth (right), a 24-year-old worker has been working at the Shen Zhou factory since 2005. Every six months she receives a new short-term contract. “Before I could earn around £95-£130 pounds, but now I earn less” she says. “Before there were only two buildings of contract workers but now there are four, so the amount of work is less. I earned only £80 pounds last month,” she explains. |
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The cost of rice has more than doubled in Cambodia in the last 5 years, but wages have remained low. Many workers also send money home to support their families. “I want to save some money but having a family is quite hard since I have to send money home to my parents,”one worker said. “I also give money to help my nephew pay for school.” |
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Standard hours at the factory are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with a 1-hour lunch break. Overtime is optional, but is taken by most workers, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. These additional hours are vital in order to earn enough to make ends meet. There is no union at the factory, but a representatives exist in the factory through whom workers can report problems to the management. |
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Every day Sorn Reab takes the transport truck to Kandal province. She wakes up at 4:30 a.m and arrives home after 8p.m. The truck costs £6.40 per month, which is a sixth of her basic wage. “If I stay in the area and rent a room like other workers, I will have to spend money on housing, food and everything else here, and then I won’t be able to save any money.” she said. “I feel sleepy and tired all the time, but this is my job.” |
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Ry Tola, (pink shirt) said that conditions were generally good at the factory compared to others in the area. “I have heard about the problems with fainting in other factories, but it rarely happens in my factory because it has enough air coming in through the windows, and there are fans,” she said. “A couple of months, one worker fainted, but that’s because she didn’t eat enough and so she was weak.” |
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Sorn Preynoun, a 30-year-old worker, lives in a room in a factory owned apartment block with her sister, her sister’s husband, and her nephew. The montly rent for the room is £25. Before the minimum wage was increased from £37 to £39 October 2010, the rent was only £19. “The price of the rented room always goes up when the fixed salary increases,” she said. “It was £19 before last October, then it went up to £22 and now it is £25 per month.” |
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