Hundreds of Factory Workers Faint on Job

Workers taken to the hospital (All Photos: Koh Santepheap)

A worker is carried out of the factory

By Chiep Mony, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
14 October 2009

Chhuon Malay was still feeling shaky Tuesday night. She waited until the rain stopped before walking from her rented apartment in a Phnom Penh suburb to get a fruit shake—a luxury she said she can rarely afford but that she hoped would bolster her strength.

The 28-year-old garment worker still felt weak from Monday, when she and around 400 coworkers fainted on the job at the Willbes Cambodia Co., Ltd., garment factory in the capital’s Dangkor district.

“My health used to be strong, but at that time I fainted unexpectedly,” she told VOA Khmer, drinking her fruit shake. “I am afraid that my health would be weak in the future.”

The mass fainting—caused apparently by noxious fumigation chemicals—underscores an ongoing problem in Cambodia’s factories, a leading union representative said after the spell. As many as 30,000 workers have passed out on the job in factories in the last decade.

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