Higher Wage Is Not Always Better

Living in a 2-meter-by-4-meter room which costs $25 per month, Chorn Malen shares the room and the rent with two other factory workers. The only furniture in that room is a cloth-closet, she has no television nor rice cooker. Besides the rent, she has to pay around $5 for electricity and running water bills every month.

Working at a local factory, she is now happier even though her salary is lower than the amount she got when she was working in Malaysia. Nevertheless, she still hope for a raise in her wage as a garment worker in Cambodia.

Malen is a garment worker at six-story factory. Her responsibility in the factory is transporting final products (shoes) from 2nd floor to 3rd flood to the stamping department.

Born in a famer family in Kompong Chhnang province, Ms. Malen spent most of her childhood in farmland rather in school. There are four children in her family. Unfortunately, one of her sibling died because of serious illness. Among all, only two of them have finished high school.

Malen, who is now 27 years old, started to earn income to support her family since she was 18. Her first job was making candle in a small village in Battambang province. Then, her aunt offered her a job opportunity to be a maid in a teacher’s family in Phnom Penh. She only had to look after the teacher’s daughter. After the child had grown up, she began her life as a garment worker.

In 2008, through a villager in her hometown, Malen got to know the information about working in Malaysia. She decided to go there not because of her family situation, but because she wanted to go with her friends.

The Malaysian agency she worked for was Pelimo Cambodia. The agency provided passport, flight ticket, and accommodation in Malaysia in exchange for her 7-month salary. Working as a maid in a family with 15 members, Malen had to share a 3-meter-by-3-meter-room with another Indonesian maid. With a monthly salary of $150, she had to take care of all the housework of the family, along with another maid. At first, the family treated her quite well. Plus, the agency was never stingy about food supply. Bread was delivered daily as breakfast, and often time she had some left over.

The morning sun never last a day. Malen said when she first worked in the agency, there was a co-worker came to her complaining about being beaten, and being starved. “That was not long after I worked there. I was scared and didn’t know what to do,” adding that the staff in the agency joint the conversation and pulled her away. After the conversation, that staff banned her from having conversation with that girl again. Malen did not think much at that time because she was new in there.

Initially, she had signed a two-year contract with the agency, and she wished to continue the contract, so she worked there for 5 more months. However, after she had been working for two whole years, the boss was trying to hinder her from visiting her family in Cambodia, by postponing the vacation date again and again. Moreover, the family she lived in started to treat her badly, such as using language abuse. Therefore, she decided to come back to Cambodia.

“Working abroad offers more money, but tiring. Working here at Cambodia despite lower wage, the boss does not force us to work for long hour. But in Malaysia, it is not, the boss will scold me to work more,” she complained in a tense look, but still remain her soft voice. In Malaysia, she had to work every day whereas in Cambodia she can have days off on Sundays and national holidays.

After coming back to Cambodia, she was totally lost, but fortunately she received help from Community of Legal Education. Moreover, her parents forbid her from going abroad again because of fearing that she will be abused again.

       In 2005, Cambodia Daily reported a trend that Indonesian maids working in Malaysia were leaving for higher salary in other countries. Therefore, Malaysian companies recruited more maid from Cambodia. Since then, the number of Cambodia women to be housemaid in Malaysia has been increased significantly. However, there were cases of Cambodian migrant workers being abused in Malaysia even before the trend was noteworthy.

So far, there have been many reported cases of migrant workers having to work in harsh conditions, such as being forced to take drug in replacement of proper meal, work constantly without rest. Some even had their passports taken away and were trafficked to be in prostitution. There were some suffered sexual abuse and being starved to death.

 As the situation of migrant maids getting worse, in October 2011 Prime Minister Hun Sen announced a ban on sending Cambodians to work in Malaysia.

A hope of activating the migrant working program appeared in November 2013, when a labor Ministry official announced the preparation of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed between Cambodia and Malaysia in the purpose of protecting the interests of the domestic workers.

Within a month, Malaysia sent back the draft MoU, rejected the requests that Cambodian migrant workers can keep their own passport, can view and sign their contract with the company before going to Malaysia, can access to three meals daily and accrue annual leave. Malaysia refused to respect the basic human rights of the migrant workers.

“If they can’t even guarantee our people their basic human rights, why should we send our people to Malaysia to suffer?” said Morn Nhim, president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia.

Malen was just at the beginning of the abuse. The decision of coming back was right to her. If not, she might face the same situation as the co-worker who complained to her. On the other hand, after coming back to Cambodia, another problem she faces is her salary. “The wage is not enough for me. I don’t have much (left) for my family if I spend a little bit more on food,” in her tender voice yet serious face, she said.

Last month, hundreds of thousands of garment worker went on strike for a raise in minimum monthly wage from $80 to $160. Now government promises to raise the wage up to $100 per month. Malen did not join the protest, but she expressed the same feeling as other garment workers feel – the minimum salary of $80 per month is not enough. Summing up overtime working bonus, her monthly wage is about $130. Saying that it is good if the wage raises, Malen also worries about the goods’ price. “If the wages increases, the goods’ price also grows. Even yellow instant noodle that used to be 600riel per package has risen to 800riel per package.” She can only afford to spend 3000riel for one meal.

Malen has not have any plan for her future yet. Since her brother has formed his own family, she expressed her longing to getting married in the next two years. For her future job, she said: “No matter how the situation changes, I will definitely work in Cambodia,” adding that if she can’t survive by working in garment factor, she will seek job opportunity as housemaid in Cambodia.