Labor policy and administration

The Ministry of Labour has announced plans of a month-long research campaign into the living standards of garment and footwear factory workers prior to setting a minimum wage in 2018. ...

Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng announced yesterday that this year’s round of garment sector minimum wage negotiations would begin in July, with unionists cautiously optimistic that next year’s national elections could benefit their cause despite calls from Sam Heng not to “politicise” the process. ...

A group representing some of the largest apparel brands in the U.S., including Gap and Levi Strauss, are urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to reconsider controversial provisions in a pair of draft laws on wages and labor disputes. ...

Domestic workers and NGOs yesterday urged the government to ratify a UN convention to protect domestic workers’ rights and freedoms, and to regulate their working conditions. ...

The Labour Ministry has announced the names of 77 private recruitment agencies approved to select, train and send Cambodian workers to Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. ...

In the country’s latest mass fainting episode, one garment worker died after inhaling what authorities suspect to have been toxic fumes and 27 others collapsed at the Taiwanese-owned Accasette Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district on Wednesday. ...

The Education Ministry has unveiled plans to expand a literacy programme for garment factory workers. ...

Cambodia has lifted its six-year ban on citizens going to Malaysia to work as maids, said Malaysia’s Human Resources Minister Richard Riot on Thursday (May 25). Riot said the decision was reached ”on the spot” during his meeting with his Cambodian counterpart in Phnom Penh ...

A day ahead of May Day, the Building and Wood Workers Trade Union Federation of Cambodia held a small rally outside the National Assembly demanding the inclusion of construction workers within the minimum wage framework and new guidelines for workplace safety. ...

The Labor Ministry spent more than four billion riel on help for garment workers involved in accidents in the first three months of the year, but unions say staff are still struggling to access healthcare. ...

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. ...

According to the official announcement, manufacturers in the textile, garment and footwear industry must do more to stop employees from fainting and suffering ill health as a result of working under excessive temperatures. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged members of the armed forces and civil servants not to envy teachers and doctors who get higher wages, saying teachers were in the field of growing human resources. ...

A pension scheme for people working in the private sector will be launched later this year, according to an official from the National Social Security Fund.   ...

The Thai Labor Ministry has increased the minimum wage for Cambodian migrant workers since the start of the year, however civil society officials say there are both pros and cons to the salary increase.A notice published yesterday and signed by Labor Minister Ith Samheng, who ...

Leaders of the Cambodian Labor Confederation have urged authorities to take action against employers who harass, threaten and use violence against female garment workers.   ...

Eighty garment workers in Kampong Cham province fainted yesterday morning due to pesticides sprayed on a rice field nearby, according to police. ...

Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng yesterday fingered large end-of-contract severance payments as a prime reason owners flee when their factories go bankrupt, suggesting the introduction of a yearly bonus scheme and fortnightly salaries would “reduce the risk” of garment workers being left in the ...

Workers from Shude Garment Co, Ltd, protested in front of their factory yesterday in Kampong Speu province’s Chbar Mon town after their employer vanished without paying their January salaries. ...

Statistics released by the National Social Security Fund yesterday showed that it increased its reach in 2016, adding more than 900 new private firms encompassing some 59,000 workers, and increasing its workplace accident payouts. ...

The Labor Ministry is considering constructing a railway line connecting Phnom Penh and select provinces to special economic zones (SEZ) or industrial areas in response to the high number of road accidents involving commuting workers. ...

More than 800 Cambodian migrant workers were assisted and sent back to the country in 2016 by the government through its embassies, but one rights group says even greater attention needs to be paid to overseas workers. ...

The Ministry of Labour met with unions on Friday to gather input on a universal minimum wage law currently being drafted, union representatives and ministry officials confirmed yesterday. “The meeting is a forum for each party to review the draft and provide comments so the ...

Sroeun, 43, a former rice farmer from Kandal province, said he was sure there had never been any accidents at his construction site.​ “Small things happen. Scratches on our hands,” he said, declining to give his full name as a supervisor stood nearby during a break ...