Nearly 100 workers from the CERIE Garment factory in Kampong Speu protested at the Labour Ministry in Phnom Penh yesterday, urging officials to implement a decision made by the Arbitration Council.

The council, which has no enforcement powers, ruled on December 15 that the factory must reinstate three workers fired for trying to create a union, along with ordering the company to stop handing out its workers’ pay at inconvenient hours.

The workers originally made seven demands, but agreed to settle for the two provisions the council ruled on, "but the company did not implement even those.

That’s why we’ve been protesting for five days now," said Chub Sok Leang, one of the three fired employees. Representatives of the company could not be reached.