Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

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Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

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Garment worker dies after fainting at factory
Wed, 9 August 2017
A garment worker fainted and died on a Phnom Penh factory floor late last week – the third such death in Cambodia’s garment industry in as many months.
Meas Sreyleak, 25, was employed at the Korean-owned Yakjin factory, which supplies brands such as Gap, Old Navy and Walmart, none of which responded to requests for comment by deadline yesterday.

The company, meanwhile, insisted yesterday that it bore no responsibility in Sreyleak’s death, declaring it was not a result of her working overtime.

Sreyleak fainted on Thursday, hitting her neck on a table of sewing machines, according to Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union President Choen Sothy.

“The factory paid $1,000 to the family, and they also promised to pay for the funeral,” Sothy said.
Sothy said Sreyleak had a sore throat during the day and did not eat lunch, while another worker and union activist at Yakjin, Chhim Thoeun, said she worked two hours overtime on the day she died. She was sent to a nearby clinic but passed away en route, Thoeun said. He added that Sreyleak travelled from her Kampong Speu home in a truck loaded with fellow garment workers to reach the factory each day.

A Yakjin “special work inspection”, finalised on Monday but obtained by The Post yesterday, said that “based on interviews [with] shop stewards and unions representatives . . . (Ms Meas Sreyleak) [did] not die by working on overtime that [is] limited by law”.

Sreyleak’s death comes after that of Khat Samerl, 43, who died of cardiac arrest on May 31, and of Neom Somol on July 6, who died after fainting while she was helping another fainted worker at a medical clinic...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/g ... ng-factory
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

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pity
:(
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

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Another garment worker died of unknown causes on 19 August.

21 August 2017
- A garment worker died on Saturday after collapsing as she got out of a truck that had dropped her off at work in Kandal province’s Ksach Kandal district.
The National Social Security Fund said Hav Srey Neat fainted on her way into the Cambo Unisol factory in Vihea Sour village.

NSSF spokesman Chiev Bunrith said fellow workers brought Ms Neat into the factory’s clinic before she was transferred to a local hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.

“NSSF facilitated and transported her body to her home for her funeral,” Mr Bunrith said, adding that the family was also provided about $1000 in compensation...
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by cptrelentless »

They really need a coroner to get to the bottom of these things. What did they faint from?
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by Rama »

cptrelentless wrote:They really need a coroner to get to the bottom of these things. What did they faint from?
I'd hazard a guess that the two who have recently died were was suffering from exhaustion and were undernourished.
The woman who died at Yakjin was working 6 days a week, plus all the overtime she could get (therefore working 7am-6pm) and was making on average a few dollars short of $200 a month. With that income she was supporting her elderly grandmother in the village and three younger brothers (although 2 had recently become monks, to reduce the family's burden; one was young at still at primary school) and renting accommodation, and supporting herself.
She had worked in her factory since she was 17, full-time until she died at 25.
Her friends described her as being hardworking and reluctant to spend money on herself.
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by cptrelentless »

Rama wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 6:29 am
cptrelentless wrote:They really need a coroner to get to the bottom of these things. What did they faint from?
I'd hazard a guess that the two who have recently died were was suffering from exhaustion and were undernourished.
The woman who died at Yakjin was working 6 days a week, plus all the overtime she could get (therefore working 7am-6pm) and was making on average a few dollars short of $200 a month. With that income she was supporting her elderly grandmother in the village and three younger brothers (although 2 had recently become monks, to reduce the family's burden; one was young at still at primary school) and renting accommodation, and supporting herself.
She had worked in her factory since she was 17, full-time until she died at 25.
Her friends described her as being hardworking and reluctant to spend money on herself.
The thing with these factories is that if they are supplying Gap, Walmart, Nike etc they should have labour welfare standards up the wazoo. All that overtime has to be logged. My old man works as a Production Director and at least half his time is making sure you meet the standards, if anyone gets a whiff of someone going ill, let alone dying, you lose all your contracts. Nobody in Europe will touch you as a supplier without a social welfare and health and safety audit. $200 is pretty normal, most experienced machinists would be getting that without dropping dead, it's what you would expect to pay. That's the reason the garment industry is a loss in this country, you can get machinists in Vietnam for less and they are more productive per head.
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by Rama »

^Agree with you. Not all factories are that terrible, I read an article last night about HE's promised pay rise, free transport, & national insurance scheme which stated that a handful of the roughly 1100 garment factories here are now providing healthy, balanced diets free to workers.

What surprised me with the first death this year, at the Yakjin factory, is that it was at a Yakjin factory, who do make clothes for "Gap (including its sister brands Old Navy and Banana Republic), American Eagle Outfitters, Wal-Mart and Victoria’s Secret." And which was involved in strikes, riots and killings in 2014 and was then reviewed by a team of Americans.


http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/yak ... der-review


https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghabahre ... ign-owners

Surprised that this could happen there, obviously things haven't changed that much.
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by AlonzoPartriz »

The thing that got me was the $1000 compensation in both cases. Cost of a poor girl's life in Cambodia's garment factories. The good ones I mean.
I bet it was food poisoning compounded by the other factors in both cases. Human beings​ are really something to behold when on the search for excessive wealth.
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by AlonzoPartriz »

Rama wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:42 pm ^Agree with you. Not all factories are that terrible, I read an article last night about HE's promised pay rise, free transport, & national insurance scheme which stated that a handful of the roughly 1100 garment factories here are now providing healthy, balanced diets free to workers.

What surprised me with the first death this year, at the Yakjin factory, is that it was at a Yakjin factory, who do make clothes for "Gap (including its sister brands Old Navy and Banana Republic), American Eagle Outfitters, Wal-Mart and Victoria’s Secret." And which was involved in strikes, riots and killings in 2014 and was then reviewed by a team of Americans.


http://m.phnompenhpost.com/national/yak ... der-review


https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghabahre ... ign-owners

Surprised that this could happen there, obviously things haven't changed that much.
Rama, re your HE says comment; you do realise there's an election coming up I suppose?
They can continually faint in mass numbers, blow up and even just drop dead , and it stll takes an election year to offer a pannacea.
The government showed us its colours already when it drafted the new union laws and pushed them through to law.
The union's were calling for company funded pension and health insurance, better wages and better control of food venders outside the factories.
Last edited by AlonzoPartriz on Tue Aug 22, 2017 8:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Garment worker dies after fainting on the job

Post by Rama »

Yes, I realize that. It was an RFA article, so that was the interpretation offered by the author, opposition unions were also quoted who still consider the proposed raise to fall short of a living wage.

I believe HE has also promised to "meet" (i.e. lecture at) garment factory workers *every* Sunday for the next few months.

HE's got a problem on his hands
...these workers are not as stupid as HE thinks, the conditions which led to the 2014 riots still exist, and are perhaps even more stark than they were before. They'll take a pay rise, but wouldn't feel in the least indebted to him.

Also, young, disenfranchised, migrant workers (and villagers) will be voting in the national elections, more than did in the commune elections.
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