Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training
Ocean settles as other worker strikes gain steam
Workers from the beleaguered Ocean Garment Factory on Monday came to an agreement with management over furlough pay, following more than a month of protests. “All the workers at Ocean Garment Factory have accepted the offer from the factory and the strikes are finished now,” said ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ocean-settles-as-other-worker-strikes-gain-steam-64619/
Four offices to open for Thailand-bound workers
Four “one-stop” offices to process documentation for Cambodians seeking legal work in Thailand will open on Tuesday after the Ministry of Labor issued a directive last week outlining how the migration process will operate, according to the head of the Ministry of Interior’s passport department. Mao ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-offices-to-open-for-thailand-bound-workers-64533/
Employers snub talks over wages
Management at Ocean Garment factory yesterday flouted a Ministry of Labour invitation to sit at the negotiating table with employees protesting the factory’s refusal to abide by an Arbitration Council decision in their favour. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/employers-snub-talks-over-wages
Maid accused of hitting baby in Singapore
Singaporean police have investigated allegations that a Cambodian woman working as a maid in the city-state assaulted an infant in her care, according to the Cambodian ambassador there and a Singaporean recruitment agency. Cheth Naren, Cambodian ambassador to Singapore, said that three Cambodian women came to ...
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maid-accused-of-hitting-baby-in-singapore-64328/
Shoe factory workers strike for seven demands
About 1,000 workers from the Sun Well Shoes factory went on strike for the second day running Wednesday, appealing for wage benefits and better safety equipment. Half of the striking workers protested in front of the factory on Veng Sreng Street in Pur Senchey district on ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/shoe-factory-workers-strike-for-seven-demands-64344/
Trade unions approve minimum wage, draft law proposals
Representatives from 25 trade unions Monday sent a request to the Ministry of Labor seeking several changes to a controversial draft union law and asking that a new $160 monthly minimum wage for the country’s volatile garment sector take effect in October. Garment factory owners say ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trade-unions-approve-minimum-wage-draft-law-proposals-64044/
After factory ignores ruling, garment workers to march
Employees of the Ocean Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district continued to protest Monday against management’s decision to ignore an Arbitration Council ruling on owed wages. Cheng Chhorn, secretary general of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said the workers will march to ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-factory-ignores-ruling-garment-workers-to-march-64074/
Ocean fight looks to the government
Days after a Phnom Penh garment factory refused to abide by an Arbitration Council decision in favour of its employees, more than 1,000 workers are expected to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Labour today. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ocean-fight-looks-government
Getting on the same page
In what is shaping up to be the first of several pivotal garment wage talks, unions are to meet for the first time today to discuss the amount they should request for next year’s minimum wage – but labour leaders and observers say coming to ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/getting-same-page
Factory wage rallies heat up
More than 1,000 workers held a demonstration in front of Ocean Garment factory in the capital yesterday, burning tyres and blocking the road in protest against the management’s refusal to abide by a ruling that workers be paid in full for a one-month closure. On May ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-wage-rallies-heat
Maids forced into debt bondage in Singapore
In August last year, the government launched a pilot project that sent 220 women to work as maids in Singapore, the first major effort to open up a new market for Cambodia’s domestic workers after the government halted sending maids to Malaysia due to persistent ...
Matt Blomberg and Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/maids-forced-into-debt-bondage-in-singapore-63194/
Minister warns of poor checks at Thai border
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Monday that Thai border officials may be letting Cambodian migrant workers back into Thailand with incomplete paperwork, opening them up to the same risks both countries have been trying to avoid since a mass exodus of Cambodian workers over ...
Phorn Bopha and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-warns-of-poor-checks-at-thai-border-62852/
‘Enough jobs’ here, but lure of Thailand abides
As Thailand today opens another fast-track visa office along the border in the hope of reversing the ongoing exodus of workers, Cambodia continues clamouring to find jobs for the returning migrants. The Ministry of Labour remained adamant yesterday that there are enough open positions in the ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98enough-jobs%E2%80%99-here-lure-thailand-abides
Workers to spend US$49 to legally work in Thailand
Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training ordered all recruitment agencies to charge only US$49 for each worker who wants to work legally in Thailand. The fee of US$49 included US$10 for worker card, US$4 for passport, US$15 for transportation, and food, and US$20 for labor ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=YThmMGU4MDc5MTB
Cambodia says over 16,000 job vacancies for Thailand returnees
Cambodia’s National Employment Agency (NEA) said Wednesday that there are 16,146 vacant jobs awaiting workers who have recently been deported from or fled Thailand in fears of a military regime’s clampdown. “NEA would like to inform laborers who just returned from Thailand that NEA has collected ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/25/c_133437849.htm
Gov’t to meet recruitment firms over migrants
Labor Ministry officials are set to meet today with about 40 local recruitment agencies to talk about formalizing the procedure for sending migrant workers to Thailand, an agency director said. The meeting will focus on how the agencies can help migrants obtain work permits and other ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-to-meet-recruitment-firms-over-migrants-62202/
Six unions call for pay, acquittals
Union leaders made another appeal for the Cambodian government to raise the minimum wage to $160 and rescind convictions of 25 workers arrested during deadly demonstrations in November and January. ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/six-unions-call-pay-acquittals
Big queues for $4 passport
A sub-decree aimed at stemming the massive influx of mostly undocumented Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand with a drastically reduced passport fee already appears to be generating an overwhelming response. Yesterday, an estimated 200 workers lined up outside the Battambang provincial passport office to get ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-queues-4-passport
Thailand says border trade rising between Surin and Oddar Meanchey
Border trade between Surin province in Thailand and Oddar Meanchey province in Cambodia is rising following military measures, the National News Bureau of Thailand said Sunday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MDY1YTgxYjYzOTh
Arbitration’s cost and value
The Arbitration Council Foundation, credited with helping resolve about 1,700 industrial disputes, has reached verbal agreement with a Swedish aid agency to receive funding until the end of 2016, a spokesman said yesterday. But members of the labour-dispute resolution body desire a more permanent solution that ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/arbitration%E2%80%99s-cost-and-value
Gov’t begins effort to send workers back to Thailand
With Thailand and Cambodia both feeling the pinch from the sudden exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers out of Thailand, the two countries are now working together to try and get them back to their old jobs legally, as fast as possible. Some 225,000 Cambodians, ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-begins-effort-to-send-workers-back-to-thailand-62083/
Ministry of Labor knights Australian industrial commissioner
The Arbitration Council says the Ministry of Labor has knighted an Australian industrial commissioner for his long period of work as an honorary advisor to the council. In a statement posted on its website Friday, the council said Labour and Vocational Training Minister Ith Samheng awarded ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OTZiMjJhNTM1NzQ
Nearly all illegal Cambodian migrants working in Thailand return home: labor minister
Cambodian Minister of Labor Ith Samheng said Friday that nearly all illegal Cambodian migrant laborers working in Thailand have returned home in fears of a junta’s crackdown on illegal foreign workers. Major Gen. Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodian-Thai Border Relation Affairs Office, said the Thai ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/20/c_133424234.htm
‘One-stop office’ to help migrants at border
Following an exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers from Thailand in the past two weeks, the junta has urged Cambodia to expedite planned border offices that will facilitate legal labour migration. Responding to that request, Cambodia announced yesterday that the first “one-stop service office” would ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98one-stop-office%E2%80%99-help-migrants-border