Some 300 garment workers from Kbal Koh Garment factory in Chbar Ampov district in Phnom Penh, whose owner unexpectedly shut the factory in January last year, protested again outside the Ministry of Labour on Tuesday to seek compensation.

Workers’ representative Oul Vanna said about 700 of them remained unpaid. “We are demanding severance pay . . . and other benefits according to the law,” she said. They are also demanding their last month’s pay and seniority bonuses.

Suon Sreymet, 35, worked for the factory 12 years before it closed down. She earned a basic pay of $190 per month, supplemented with overtime wages.

She said she and her husband burned through their savings while waiting for Sreymet’s severance package.

“It is very hard as we have four children. I didn’t have money to school them,” she said. Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said the case is being reviewed.