PHNOM PENH, May 1
(Xinhua) -- About 5,000 Cambodian workers
took to the street on Wednesday
to mark the International Labor Day,
calling for pay rise, better labor
conditions and decrease in petrol
prices, a union representative
said.
Marchers, mostly garment
workers, held banners and walked from
the Freedom Park near the Wat
Phnom historical site to the National
Assembly in order to submit a
petition to the National
Assembly.
"Our petition is to
ask the government to set the
minimum wage of 150 U.S. dollars
a month for a garment worker
and to take measures to ensure
working safety for workers," Rong
Chhun, president of the Cambodian
Confederation of Unions, who headed
the protest, told
reporters.
Currently, the minimum
wage for a garment worker is 80
U.S. dollars.
"We also
urge the government to cap the
gasoline price to less than 1
U.S. dollar a liter from the
current price of 1.37 U.S. dollars,"
he said.
The garment industry
is Cambodia's largest income earner,
representing more than 80 percent of
the country's exports.
The
latest report of the Ministry of
Commerce showed that currently, the
country has about 500 garment and
footwear factories employing some 510,600
workers. Last year, the country
exported garment products in equivalent
to 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 8
percent year-on-year.
Prime Minister
Hun Sen said the government allowed
workers to express their rights
through protests in order to demand
better labor conditions.
"This
is their freedom," the premier said
during the celebration of the
International Labor Day with about 1,300
workers of the Sihanoukville Autonomous
Port on Wednesday.
"Some
workers stage protests on the day
to demand better wage and working
conditions, and the others enjoy their
holiday by visiting their families or
organizing parties," he
said.
The premier recalled that
the worker's monthly salary was
just more than 50 U.S. dollars
in 2008 and increased to 61 U.S.
dollars in 2010 and further rose to 80
U.S. dollars from May
2013.
He said the government
would be happy if the employers
could increase more wage for
workers.
（Editor：HuangBeibei、Chen
Lidan）
