Pseng-Pseng
Fainting of Conscience
“I want to tell you all that we have looked deeply into the
situation of mass fainting, and it is not caused by the work, but mostly
because of the workers’ health. For example, when they get a headache or are slightly
ill, they don’t see a doctor, because they think healthcare is too expensive.”
National Social Security Fund (NSSF) director Ouk Samvithyea, 6
March 2014
“They fainted because they drank beer and danced until late last
night,” he said.
Por Senchey district governor Hem Darith, 2 April 2014
So, according to the
government officials, garment workers are a bunch of those who enjoy life so
much they put their health at risk.
Nonetheless, the Cambodian
garment industry dominates the world in the issue of health and safety at work.
A Google search of the phrase, “worker fainting at work”, will bring about
references that are overwhelmingly populated by the garment workers fainting
events in Cambodia. If fainting at work were due to late night drinking and
dancing, then the Cambodian garment workers would have begun their “Joie de la
vie” in 1999 when 171 of them passed out for the first time. Between then and
2013 at least 6,436 garment workers took up this enjoyment to the detriment of
their health. There are indications that a lot more will join in the fun this
year and later.
If Ouk Samvithyea is right
that the healthcare costs are too expensive for the workers, then the
compensation scheme under his charge makes sense, conceptually. It is the NSSF
operation that has already become an issue. First, the NSSF is a gigantic
bureaucratic layer that is very susceptible to corruption parasite that
entrenches in government institutions. It is designed to collect contributions
from employers and employees that could amount up to USD2.64 million each
month, which is an alluring pile of potential loots.
Second, it becomes a
struggle to get the NSSF to pay out compensations at claim time. Solidarity
Center country director Dave Welsh asserts it is like pulling teeth to get the
Fund to compensate two dead workers and nine injured workers after a section of
the Wing Star factory collapsed last May. He says they look for as many
obstacles as possible to paying out.
Third, the scheme in
effect allows garment employers to walk away, at a very cheap cost, from being
responsible for work safety on their factory floor. GMAC and the Cambodian
Federation of Employers and Business Associations (CAMFEBA) have succeeded in
lobbying to lower the contribution rate from 3% to a current level of .08% of
workers’ wage. It seems the workers are going to keep on fainting at work,
unless they stop drinking and dancing into the night.
The bottom line is that
the workers are locked to the bottom of the pit. This is when the garment
employers, like Grand Twins International, can boast that their operation in
Cambodia yields an average annual return on equity in the past few years of
34%, and that their average net profit margin after tax is 13% per year. They
would rather have their conscience fainting than foregoing this super
profitability.
And the CPP prime minister
is right there – being grateful to the job creator, and making sure that the
non-dead workers must keep the job at any costs to them.
Ung Bun Ang
10iv14
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