Special Feature

Garbage collectors, fishers, banana pickers, unionists, hostesses — amid a tumultuous year for the economy, a broad swath of Cambodian laborers has faced severe challenges in their work.

There are unique circumstances among them: A laundry shop in Phnom Penh is run by disabled workers, and must cope with discrimination; medical waste collectors tiptoe around broken syringes in sandals on a regular basis; and banana plantation workers, many of them fleeing joblessness and food insecurity, fear the drones spraying chemicals overhead every day and the illnesses spreading through the community.

As battered industries have shed tens of thousands of jobs amid a global pandemic, over several months workers told VOD of the struggle to survive and the solidarity with which they face their problems together.