Nearly 600 garment workers at the Wanlin Zongheng garment factory protested in front of the Labour Ministry, claiming they hadn’t been paid bonuses after the factory changed their contracts recently, according to a representative of the workers.

Huy Sambath, president of Federation Union for Cambodia, said that when the factory decided to change its name from Su Tong Fang to Wanlin Zongheng, citing the new name as fortuitous, the owner promised to honour their bonus clauses in the old contracts.

"They told workers that they will keep the bonus for the workers [from the old contract] but when the workers went to get their salary in April [after getting new contracts], they lost their old bonus," he said.

He said the workers went on strike on Friday and petitioned the Ministry of Labour yesterday to intervene in the matter.

Vong Sovann, of the Labour Ministry’s Conflict Department, acknowledged that he had received the worker’s petition and would address the issue with the factory’s owner.