Cambodia's textile workers hang by a thread under Chinese bosses

Pak Kok Heng used to make sweaters for the Pine Great Factory in Phnom Penh. Now, he and his former colleagues spend their days standing outside the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Cambodian capital.

"We're here because we haven't been paid for three months. Our manager ran off back to China and our factory is closed," said the 24-year-old. "We want the ministry to sell off what's left in the factory and pay us the wages we are owed. But they haven't even sent out an official to talk to us. We're very angry with them and that's why we're staying here."

Pak Kok Heng and the 700-odd now unemployed workers at Pine Great, a Shanghai-based company, are not alone in challenging the government of long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

For Asia's millions of garment workers, Cambodia is the new frontline in the battle for better pay and working conditions.

With the country preparing to go to the polls tomorrow for national elections, it's the more than 300,000 workers in the booming textile industry who are the most visible and militant opposition to Hun Sen and the CPP.

"There are two main issues in Cambodia now: labour rights and land rights," said David Welsh, the Cambodia country director for the Solidarity Centre, an NGO that monitors global labour movements. "There is a real sense now that there's much greater awareness among workers of their rights."