An Armani supplier factory in Phnom Penh where workers frequently fainted amid soaring temperatures shuttered its doors this week, leaving hundreds unemployed and out of pocket after reportedly shifting orders from the designer brand to a second factory elsewhere in the country. Having suspended work in July, the Taiwanese-owned Kin Tai Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Chak Angre commune officially closed its doors on Wednesday after issuing an announcement to its workforce that they no longer had jobs. The factory, which the Post was granted rare access to before it suspended production, had for years ignored an arbitration council order to install water sprinklers on its roof to cool the facility, leaving workers to toil in temperatures sometimes exceeding 37 degrees Celsius. Seamstresses at Kin Tai had resorted to coining – a traditional healing practice that involves scraping at their skin until it is raw – in an effort to endure the heat and keep from fainting. Workers there, who were employed almost exclusively on three- to six-month fixed-duration contracts, said they weren’t receiving seniority bonuses, and many were unsure of their rights to paid leave. The written announcement of the factory’s closure, which was signed on November 6 and obtained by the Post this week, says workers will receive all remittances owed to them under the Labour Law. But many of Kin Tai’s former employees claim that they are owed more than the factory is prepared to pay.