A small number of workers from four union groups took part in a stay-at-home-strike yesterday, union leaders said, after mass industrial action was postponed the day before.

Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said members of his union from a “small amount” of factories had chosen to stay home as they continued calls for a $160 minimum monthly wage and the release of 21 men arrested during a strike in January.

“I think it is an effective way of appealing to the government and factories,” he said. “We told the workers to only do it for three days.”

Most of the 18 union groups involved in planning the strike agreed on Tuesday to postpone it until after Khmer New Year.

But Lay Chamroeun, an employee of the Kin Tai Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district, said yesterday that he and all his co-workers had been given until Monday off after an on-the-job strike.

“All the workers came into the factory, but they did not work,” he said.