Garments and textiles

A proposed project hopes to channel the widespread use of mobile phones among factory workers to bring the voice of the 600,000 Cambodians employed in the crucial garment sector into future wage negotiations. The project, which would collect information about working hours, conditions, wages and expenses ...

Cambodian labor unions this week lowered their demands for a 60 percent increase to the country’s $100 minimum wage, as talks loom next month on setting a new wage.Unions agreed to call for $150 a month during a meeting with officials from the Garment Manufacturers’ ...

The Yakjin Trading Corporation, a South Korean company whose factory was at the center of major demonstrations earlier this year, has begun a review of its operations. ...

Thousands of employees from two Taiwanese-owned factories continued striking for better working conditions yesterday. ...

More than 5,000 workers from a footwear factory in Kompong Cham province went on strike Monday, calling on factory management to increase their benefits. The lively crowd rallied outside the Taiwanese-owned Juhui Footwear factory in Choeung Prey district, dancing to music pumped out of loudspeakers as ...

Around 300 workers from a Taiwanese-owned Xin Fang (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing Co., Ltd marched Monday to Ministry of Labor to seek intervention in their working conditions. ...

Cambodia’s $5.5 billion garment industry is nearing a crossroads amid uncertain prospects for outsourcing, an industry source says, citing participants at a recent trade show in Phnom Penh. “Many industry suppliers believe that while Cambodia remains a growing market for their textile and garment products, there ...

Hundreds of garment workers traveled from a Kompong Chhnang factory to Phnom Penh on Monday to petition the Ministry of Labor to intervene in their dispute with factory management. About 3,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory have been striking since August 18, accusing ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) over the weekend released a statement condemning an ongoing strike at a Kompong Chhnang garment factory and urging authorities to “punish the perpetrators.” About 3,000 employees of the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory have been on strike since August ...

Amid reports of increased mass-fainting incidents in Cambodia’s garment sector, workers, employers and government officials gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday for a roundtable discussion on the issue. The conference, which was organised by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, identified issues such as workday lengths and ...

The minister of labour has sent a stern warning to garment factories to take measures to end mass faintings or face the consequences. Speaking after a safety workshop yesterday, Ith Sam Heng said the government will get tougher on factories, fining those that didn’t provide safe ...

Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Thursday were prevented from arresting workers and union officials outside a Samakki Meanchey district garment factory by a mob of irate protesters who pulled two of their colleagues out of a police car to thwart their arrests. About 3,000 employees ...

The faintings between January and August were much higher than the 802 reported in the whole of last year, while only one factory worker died in the workplace in 2013, the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) said in a ...

About 3,000 garment workers went on strike in Kompong Chhnang province for a second day Tuesday, accusing their factory of withholding some of their monthly bonuses. Employees from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory blocked National Road 5 for more than four hours Tuesday, claiming that ...

In Cambodia, where the garment sector accounts for 80 percent of exports, hundreds of thousands of people depend on their slice of the $5 billion industry to survive. But for suppliers currently exhibiting their wares at a trade show this weekend on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich ...

At least 127 Cambodian garment workers at six different factories got fainted on Friday due to poor health, a local police chief confirmed. Yim Socheat, police chief of Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, where the incidents occurred, said the victims had been sent to hospitals soon after ...

About 3,000 garment workers in Kompong Chhnang province agreed to end their protest and return to work Wednesday after confusion over their monthly salaries was cleared away. Workers from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory in Samakki Meanchey district went on strike Monday after picking up ...

Unions representing garment workers have pledged to reignite protests if the minimum wage for the industry is raised to only $115 next year, a sum they say was offered by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia during a meeting on Friday. The Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) ...

Unions and factories remained at odds over where to peg next year’s minimum wage for the garment sector after a meeting between representatives for both sides on Friday, though they agreed to resume the talks later in the month. Earlier this year, the Labor Advisory Committee, ...

About 200 employees of a Phnom Penh garment factory agreed to go back to work after reaching a deal with the factory Sunday, a day after they walked off the job—with some sewing machines in hand—because the owners could not pay them on time. ...

Representatives for the employees and owners of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire last month will meet at the Ministry of Labor today to try and hammer out a pay package for the workers, though a factory official said they would not ...

Seven union leaders protesting against being sacked from the Vantage River Textile factory in Preah Sihanouk province each agreed yesterday to accept $300 compensation. Worker representative and sacked employee Keo Srey Pich, 22, said three hours of negotiations between the union, workers and the company, in ...

Thailand will lose its beneficial tax treatment on exports to the European Union next year, and Cambodia’s manufacturing sector could be set to capitalise. Following three consecutive years of upper-middle income status as defined by the World Bank, Thailand will on January 1 lose its Generalised ...

Deposite not coming close to achieving their goal of a $160 monthly minimum garment wage, unions announced yesterday that they will raise their demands to $177 for 2015. Ken Chhenglang, acting pres­ident of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), said about 10 union ...