News
PM announces boost to maternity leave salaries
Prime Minister Hun Sen again met with garment sector workers yesterday, adding a boost to maternity leave salaries to a range of promises he had made to them on Tuesday. ...
Khmer Times
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5079681/pm-announces-boost-maternity-leave-salaries/
Bus rides and health insurance for workers
Garment and footwear industry workers were promised a range of services from Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday, including free bus rides, a minimum wage hike and health insurance. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5078978/bus-rides-health-insurance-workers/
Unions ready for minimum wage talks
Pro-government and independent unions are gearing up for negotiations to introduce a national minimum wage by the end of the year. ...
Sen David
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/5077058/unions-ready-minimum-wage-talks/
Minimum wage for all in sight
A new law on a national minimum wage for all workers will come into force by the end of the year, the Labor Minister said, after union and employer representatives met officials to discuss the issue yesterday. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/37653/minimum-wage-for-all-in-sight/
Employers want $144 min. Wage
Employers released their starting figure for the new minimum wage yesterday, saying in an open letter that they planned to enter tripartite negotiations with $144.20 per month as their goal for 2017. In a letter from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed by secretary-general ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29504/employers-want--144-min--wage/
Unions will negotiate for a $180 minimum wage
A group of 17 union leaders will demand $179.60 when they sit down for the latest round of negotiations this week to determine the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs more than 600,000 Cambodians. The monthly minimum wage is currently $140. The new figure ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-will-negotiate-180-minimum-wage-117581/
Labour Minister seeks strike-free minimum wage talks
Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday told stakeholders involved in the upcoming minimum wage negotiations to base their demands on the country’s economic situation, and not to try to influence the process through protests or demonstrations. Talks over the 2017 minimum wage for the garment sector are ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-minister-seeks-strike-free-minimum-wage-talks
Unions tout ‘living wage’ ahead of minimum wage talks
Unions meeting on Friday arrived at an estimated cost-of-living salary for garment workers ahead of minimum wage talks, one remarkably similar to the monthly wage they’ve demanded two years running, though suggested the final number they push for will be higher. ...
Sen David and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-tout-living-wage-ahead-minimum-wage-talks
Trade Unions agree on $177 wage demand
A group of nine trade unions representing some of the country’s 700,000 garment workers agreed on Monday to push for a $177 monthly minimum wage for the sector during fast-approaching negotiations, matching the figure they unsuccessfully lobbied for last year. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/trade-unions-agree-on-177-wage-demand-86349/
Asian garment industry to undergo further segmentation
The Asian garment manufacturing industry will undergo further segmentation in the next three to four years as competition becomes more intense, experts said. China, Thailand and Vietnam will mainly produce high-end clothing, while Bangladesh, Laos, Burma and Cambodia will mainly produce low-end clothing. Lu Qijian, ...
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2013-07/15/content_16778408.htm
Real Wages in Garment Sector Fell Over 10 Years
Wages for Cambodian garment workers decreased by more than 20 percent in real terms between 2001 and 2011 despite the industry’s exponential increase in exports, which in 2012 were valued at more than $4 billion, according to a recent report by a U.S.-based workers advocacy ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/wages-in-garment-sector-fell-22-over-10-years-34788/
Garment Exports Booming Despite Concerns
Despite criticisms over safety, outbreaks of sometimes violent industrial action and a raise in the minimum wage that it was warned would scare off manufacturers, Cambodia’s garment sector is booming, according to government figures. A report on state newswire Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) on Friday said ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/garment-exports-booming-despite-concerns-34035/
Cambodia Falls Short as Garment-Industry Model
This small Southeast Asian country was supposed to become a model for the world apparel industry, with tough factory monitoring and strong worker protections. But a dozen years after the United Nations’ International Labour Organization launched a program to manage Cambodia’s booming garment trade—the first of ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578521240151597504.html
Cambodia's garment exports up 22 pct in 5 months
Cambodia’s garment industry, the country’s biggest income earner, recorded 2.06 billion U.S. dollars in export value in the first five months of this year, up 22 percent on the same period last year, a Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. Garment export accounts for more than 80 ...
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2013-06/27/c_132492345.htm
NagaWorld a no-show at arbitration meeting
A strike involving hundreds of casino workers – many who have been told their contracts have been terminated – reached an impasse yesterday after NagaWorld officials did not attend a conciliation session at the Arbitration Council, a union leader said. “The Arbitration Council could not immediately ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062566463/National/nagaworld-a-no-show-at-arbitration-meeting.html
NagaWorld strikers fired en masse
Nagaworld casino has fired more than 400 workers who have spent about 10 days striking to demand a wage increase, union leaders, workers and a leaked internal memo have revealed. A list of names, obtained by the Post yesterday, was emailed to management and senior staff ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013062466447/National/nagaworld-strikers-fired-en-masse.html
Cambodia PM says garment firms may quit over wage rows
Cambodia’s strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday warned garment workers that protests demanding higher wages could push manufacturers to quit the country. His appeal came after unions last week said hundreds of workers had been fired from a factory making sportswear for US giant Nike ...
Police Detain Protesting NagaWorld Staff
Nineteen NagaWorld casino employees were detained Tuesday afternoon as police attempted to break up a protest of more than 500 workers who had picketed in front of the casino for the past six days, demanding the company increase their salaries. The workers had been striking non-violently ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/police-detain-protesting-nagaworld-staff-31336/
Eight More Charged Over Violent Factory Protest
A court official at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said Monday that a total of 16 union representatives have been charged with damaging property and inciting violence during a protest outside a garment factory earlier this month, twice the number of arrests previously confirmed. Provincial Judge ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eight-more-charged-over-violent-factory-protest-31214/
Factory Workers Demand Release of Eight After Protest
About 1,000 garment workers on Wednesday demonstrated outside Kompong Speu Provincial Court calling for the release of eight people arrested during a protest this week over wages at a factory supplying U.S. brand Nike, a union official said. Fighting between the workers on Monday displayed ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-workers-demand-release-of-eight-held-after-protest-29318/
Cambodia’s garment exports grow 17.5% in Jan-March’13
The exports of garments and textiles from Cambodia have grown by 17.5 percent year-on-year to reach US$ 1.34 billion during the first three months of the current year, data released by the Ministry of Commerce shows. Last year, Cambodia exported apparels worth US$ 4.61 billion, ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=146951
Cambodian Trade Union warns protest to demand release of arrested members
Cambodian Free Trade Union of Workers (FTU) warned Tuesday to stage a protest if the authority does not release its eight members who were arrested by police on Monday during a demonstration at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory, a union leader said. FTU’s president Chea Mony ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-06/04/c_132430572.htm
Cambodia’s garment industry expanding
Both exports and imports of garment materials rose more than 17 per cent in the first quarter of the year compared with the same period last year, reflecting a growth in Cambodia’s biggest industry. Exports of garment and textile materials went up by 17.5 per cent ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013060466032/Business/cambodia-s-garment-industry-expanding.html
7 Cambodian Workers Arrested at Nike Contractor
Cambodian police clashed Monday with workers at a factory that makes clothing for the U.S. sportswear company Nike, arresting seven, in the latest violence linked to a strike over salaries, union organizers and rights activists said. The protest at the Taiwanese-owned Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing plant ...