THREE workers at M&V International Manufacturing Ltd’s garment factory in Kampong Chhnang factory fainted yesterday and about 20 others were permitted to stop working for two more days due to poor health, a representative of their union said.

“I don’t know why they are fainting,” union representative Norn Leakhena said.

Nearly 300 workers fainted at the factory last week. An inspection was conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, Norn Leakhena said. She said fumes from the laundry building and the smell of the fabrics were the cause of last week’s mass fainting.

The factory gave employees a break from Thursday until today after the second mass fainting incident.

Sourin Ravuthy, director of Kampong Chhnang provincial hospital, said that the workers who fainted did not have to stay at the hospital because they were only slightly unwell.

An M&V executive, who asked not to be named, said yesterday that the factory’s operations had returned to normal and that last week’s faintings had been confined to one area of the factory.

Both the International Labour Organisation and H&M, the global brand that the factory supplies, were sending staff to inspect the factory, he said.  “We want to find a solution to this problem just as much as anyone else,” he said.

He said that health officials who had checked factory workers agreed that their general health was poor.

He also said that the main reasons for their poor health were not eating breakfast, staying up late drinking alcohol the night before working, wearing too much makeup and wearing too many layers of clothing.

“We are trying to get them to eat breakfast and have healthy lifestyles, but we are just one factory. This is something officials need to deal with nationally. This is not just a problem in our factory,” he said.

Prime Minister Hun Sen last week called for labour ministry officials to quickly find a solution to the mass fainting incidents at garment factories.