Prime Minister Hun Sen has said the Labour Law amendment on workers’ benefits, recently approved by the Council of Ministers, will ensure all employers pay full severance and benefits to employees every six months.

The move was meant to ease the concerns of factory workers who are sometimes left without wages after their employers shutter their factories and flee due to financial problems.

Hun Sen made the comments during a meeting with 16,000 workers on Wednesday in Kandal province’s Sa’ang district.

Addressing the workers, he said: “In the past, these financial benefits were kept by the owners. If the owners are kind, it’s easy to receive them.

“But if the owners have money problems or owe too much money to [workers], bad things happen, owners might run away and the workers are left with nothing.”

He added that after the amendment, the government will no longer allow owners of companies or factories to incur debts to the extent they close their factories and flee.