Cambodia Unity Group Sets up Women’s Committee

The first session in the meeting was body mapping. The women paired up and drew their bodies, putting stickers wherever they felt a pain. They reported pains in the stomach, intestines, ovaries, head, eyes, throat, heart, ear, nose, fingers, shoulders.  They indicated that sitting long hours gives them back pains, and legs hurt from standing for a long time. They had lung and liver pain caused by the dust from the cloth. They drink water which is not pure which gives them digestion and kidney problems. In addition they do not go to the toilet often enough because of fear of losing out on the piece rate. Nor do they drink enough water. They suffer from sinus pains from inhaling the dust since they do not use masks. Their fingers hurt from the long hours of sewing, and their feet ache from the pedals, in addition to the unease from sitting too long. The women mostly work two hours overtime every day in order to earn more, in order to arrive at 150 USD a month.

The second step was life mapping. The women drew a clock and indicated how much work they do all day and all night.

One conclusion was that trade unions should be more sensitive to women’s health issues. Some of them are easily solved. One recommendation is also to approach other women to show expertise on women’s health issues, since in general women are more interested in their health than men.

After a presentation on ILO Convention 183 on maternity protection groups met to decide on their priorities in connection with maternity protection. The first step would be to do research and collect information and produce training and campaign material. All affiliates together should meet and issue a joint statement in order to approach the government all together for ratification of ILO Convention 183. A group will be formed to do follow up. The point is to campaign for 14 weeks of maternity leave, which is currently 90 days. Work must be done to garner support for the issue from the factories. Collective bargaining is also one important way to improve maternity protection – the law now states that women must work for one year before getting maternity benefits. In negotiations it could be possible to achieve maternity benefits for all. The unions have one hour of radio broadcasting a week. They suggest campaigning on ILO Convention 183 on their radio program. The content of the convention should be part of union training and the study circles. All unions need to join the campaign together with IndustriALL and ITUC-AP in the fight to get ILO Convention 183 ratified.

In cases of miscarriage or abortion there is a National Social Security Fund which covers work-related cases, no health insurance and no maternity benefits. Women on short-term contracts do not have maternity leave or benefits. In some cases however after having many contracts the women do get some benefits, usually after the union insists. Some of the factories are considering some form of childcare. As part of a maternity campaign this national social security fund needs to be reformed in order to pay out maternity benefits. It must be emphasized that maternity protection is a social responsibility and thus paid for by society.

The unions negotiate on women’s issues because so many of the members are women, and as a rule women make up 50 percent of the bargaining committees. They want to form a women’s committee because they feel that would make it easier to elect women leaders. Not all of women’s interests are always communicated to the male leadership. Moreover women are not confident in their own capacities, not least because they are so busy at home and thus have little time left over to devote to the union. The women are overloaded not least by the fact that the husbands do very little. Sometimes they come home late drunk.

They hope that the women’s committee will be able to stand up against all these concepts.

Decision making at the leadership level is done by men. The opportunities available to women are low. The women hope that women’s committees will provide training to members on women’s issues and educate them to understand well women’s role. The 8 IndustriALL federations in Cambodia should join together to have one women’s voice. The aims of the committee will be as follows:

·         To speak with one voice

·         To get more women in the union structure

·         To build confidence among women

·         To get women to vote for women

·         To provide training to women on women’s issues

·         To improve women to women communication

·         To increase women membership since the women will believe that they can get support from the committee

Then a role play was done on the following themes:

1. How to ratify ILO Convention 183
2. How to get more men to take responsibility for the family
3. How to negotiate better working conditions for women

The women’s committee will consist of 2 women from each federation. A chair and vice-chair and secretary were elected.

The garment industry is Cambodia’s largest foreign exchange earner. The sector comprises more than 300 factories, employing some 335,400 workers, 91 percent of whom are women. Since 1 May 2013 the minimum wage has been 80 USD a month.