Land Mines
Living wages
Socially and ethically, the bar is set high for the new factory.
The social unrest in Cambodia and the concerns of NGOs in
Eighty percent of the employees are young women and many
the surrounding countries usually entail harrowingly low wages.
have children. To address this the factory will feature a daycare
Pactics can build beautiful facilities, but if people don’t have
and a room for nursing mothers. There will be a training room
enough money to support their families, a beautiful factory isn’t
for employee education as well as lunch facilities that will offer
worth all that much. The legal minimum wage in Cambodia is
a healthy nutritious lunch to the employees.
66 USD per month. Pactics’ wages are safely above this. (see box on wage build-up). Furthermore the company pays health
The factory will be on ground level with the different buildings
costs and personal accident insurance. It also pays around 50
connected via corridors. There will be a disabled toilet and the
USD per year on schooling, for example, an English language
whole facility and surrounding grounds will be made disabled
or computing course.
friendly. This allows landmine victims to be fully employable at Pactics. As a result of the war in Vietnam and Pol Pot’s regime,
Pactics’ own analysis shows that employees on average live
Cambodia struggles with an inheritance of millions of landmines.
about 8 kilometers from the current location. Most of them
According to NGO estimations, Cambodia has over 60,000
arrive at work by foot or by bicycle. Of the 60 employees, 56 live
physically disabled people as a catastrophic consequence
with their families. This means that costs for living and traveling
of exploding landmines. Usually they have limited access to
are relatively low. The employees elect a workers council with
education and employment and despite some government
a shop steward and assistant who represent the employees'
arrangements, most of them do not receive any support from
interests in communication with the management.
the state. Vannoeun: “For the new factory we already have a lot of applicants. I try to pick people who are in the most need of an
Cambodia is currently the fastest growing economy in
income, like adolescent orphans, or single parent families. Land
Southeast Asia. Adolescents who have studied abroad are
mine victims can work in our departments for packaging. They
returning home with new and creative positive ideas. Due to
may be handicapped, but this does not mean they cannot use
Cambodia's relatively open society, there is room for critical
their hands and work to the potential of our other employees.”
NGOs and pressure groups to help move things forward. All of these developments will hopefully improve working conditions, slowly but surely. It would be gratifying if Pactics and its values can be part of this process and improvement. •
32 PACTICS