Daily Commercial News
October 14, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
The race is on to build Phnom Penh’s first skyscraper but as the fast-modernizing city famous for its graceful colonial skyline transforms, safety standards appear to be stuck in the past.
The construction business in Cambodia is booming, attracting investments of $3.2 billion in the first six months of this year and luring some 40,000 seasonal construction workers from impoverished provinces.
But, as construction worker Chan Vuthy can attest, work safety has deteriorated as buildings spring up, the worker told Agence France-Presse.
The day a blade from a malfunctioning saw cut deep into his knee, the 23-year-old was wearing flip-flops, a cloth hat and no protective equipment.
When he stumbled to the bottom of the site, his boss scolded him for recklessness.
He was then fired, and had to spend his savings on a month of hospital treatment.
“Every time other workers and I have accidents, they say we are careless,” Chan Vuthy says.
Cambodian construction workers risk their lives for an average wage of two and a half dollars a day, says Sok Sovandeith, president of the Cambodia National Federation of Building and Wood Workers.
There are no laws to force construction enterprises to pay adequate wages so many workers must live on building sites.
Few of them have any training and companies have little incentive to take measures to avoid accidents or use equipment such as hard helmets, work boots or safety harnesses.
“We’re very worried about poor working conditions which have not been improved or guaranteed by law,” Sok Sovandeith says adding that construction work is the most dangerous kind of labour in the country.
“We are not happy when workers are not safely equipped. After some inspections, we found a lot of building sites and companies do not give out safety materials.”
Many construction companies lay the blame for poor safety on workers who do not protect themselves.
So far the government has sided with businesses, taking no action to ensure better work conditions amid the building boom which has attracted investment from South Korea and China and helped fuel double-digit economic growth.
DCN News Services
October 14, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia
The race is on to build Phnom Penh’s first skyscraper but as the fast-modernizing city famous for its graceful colonial skyline transforms, safety standards appear to be stuck in the past.
The construction business in Cambodia is booming, attracting investments of $3.2 billion in the first six months of this year and luring some 40,000 seasonal construction workers from impoverished provinces.
But, as construction worker Chan Vuthy can attest, work safety has deteriorated as buildings spring up, the worker told Agence France-Presse.
The day a blade from a malfunctioning saw cut deep into his knee, the 23-year-old was wearing flip-flops, a cloth hat and no protective equipment.
When he stumbled to the bottom of the site, his boss scolded him for recklessness.
He was then fired, and had to spend his savings on a month of hospital treatment.
“Every time other workers and I have accidents, they say we are careless,” Chan Vuthy says.
Cambodian construction workers risk their lives for an average wage of two and a half dollars a day, says Sok Sovandeith, president of the Cambodia National Federation of Building and Wood Workers.
There are no laws to force construction enterprises to pay adequate wages so many workers must live on building sites.
Few of them have any training and companies have little incentive to take measures to avoid accidents or use equipment such as hard helmets, work boots or safety harnesses.
“We’re very worried about poor working conditions which have not been improved or guaranteed by law,” Sok Sovandeith says adding that construction work is the most dangerous kind of labour in the country.
“We are not happy when workers are not safely equipped. After some inspections, we found a lot of building sites and companies do not give out safety materials.”
Many construction companies lay the blame for poor safety on workers who do not protect themselves.
So far the government has sided with businesses, taking no action to ensure better work conditions amid the building boom which has attracted investment from South Korea and China and helped fuel double-digit economic growth.
DCN News Services
No comments:
Post a Comment