Protests in Cambodia after Gap and H&M supplier fires workers for striking

Around 4,000 Cambodian garment workers protested on Thursday after a factory supplying global brands including Gap and H&M allegedly fired hundreds of their colleagues for striking over conditions.

Union leaders said the Singapore-owned SL Garment Processing factory fired 720 workers on Wednesday while more than 5,000 others were suspended after a two-week long strike.

Workers had walked out claiming intimidation over regular factory inspections carried out by an official flanked by military police.

The workers on Thursday marched some 10 kilometres from the factory to Phnom Penh’s City Hall to urge the government to intervene in the dispute.

“We want the factory to allow the workers to go back to work,” union leader Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, told reporters.

“But if they want to close they factory they must pay compensation to workers according to the law,” he said.

Factory officials could not immediately be reached for comment.