Labor
Labor policy and administration
Fire-ravaged factory’s former owner to give workers loans
The former owner of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire on Monday has agreed to provide loans to about 900 out-of-work employees until the current owner decides whether and how to pay them due wages and severance. Authorities, meanwhile, said they still did ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fire-ravaged-factorys-former-owner-to-give-workers-loans-65259/
Demonstrators say jobs in Japan promised
Hundreds of Cambodians hoping to migrate to Japan to work in the electronics industry yesterday protested outside an NGO that they claim conned them out of up to $200 each with promises of jobs. About 100 protesters – out of a total of 300 who are ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/demonstrators-say-jobs-japan-promised
Odor causes nearly 200 garment workers to faint at 2 factories
More than 190 workers at two separate garment factories fainted at work on Friday and Saturday, both times after complaining of foul odors, union leaders and workers said. At the Chinese-owned Sixplus Industry factory in Kandal province’s Mok Kampoul district, which makes sportswear for retail giant ...
Workers clash: At factory in Kandal, fight over protest
Melees at a garment factory in Kandal province between striking workers and employees who are against the industrial action have left five people mildly injured. Employees at the Tae Young factory began striking a week ago, calling for two administrators at the plant to be fired, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-clash-factory-kandal-fight-over-protest
On the march: Days-long strike shifts to district HQ
After striking for more than a week, employees at Phnom Penh’s Sun Well Shoes yesterday marched to Por Sen Chey district hall, demanding their voices be heard. Some 300 people marched from their Veng Sreng Boulevard factory with a list of seven demands, including the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/march-days-long-strike-shifts-district-hq
After deal, unions expect support
News of an end to a year-long political deadlock has labour union leaders believing the opposition party can bring their interests to parliament, but a lack of follow-through could cost the Cambodia National Rescue Party vital support from one of its key interest groups. Different union ...
Sean Teehan, Mom Kunthear and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-deal-unions-expect-support
Garment workers demand district intervention
About 200 garment workers on Wednesday marched from the Sun Well Shoe Factory on Veng Sreng Street to the Pur Senchey district office, demanding intervention in an ongoing dispute over their wages, a union representative said. At 7 a.m., the workers left the factory, marching out ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/garment-workers-demand-district-intervention-64820/
Brands dodge blame over substandard factory
Behind the walls of the nondescript Hung Tak garment factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, more than 400 workers have been toiling in substandard conditions to cut and stitch clothing for some of the world’s biggest brands. But since the factory was named by the ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/brands-dodge-blame-over-substandard-factory-64606/
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/
Strike for a song: Employees ‘waste time on phones’
About 500 garment workers whose bosses have complained that they spend too much of their working day talking on the phone and listening to music protested outside their Kampong Speu factory yesterday, demanding better working conditions. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-song-employees-%E2%80%98waste-time-phones%E2%80%99
Sorya back at negotiating table
Former staffers of Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation will meet with a company representative tomorrow to demand reinstatement after more than two weeks of the firm’s continued refusal to comply with a decision by the Arbitration Council, they and the bus operator said yesterday. According to Yim ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sorya-back-negotiating-table
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
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/
City hall calls out Cintri’s rubbish collecting efforts—again
Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong on Monday slammed municipal waste disposal company Cintri for its poor performance in collecting the city’s garbage after a strike by trash collectors last week once again left the streets a mess. Cintri’s trash collectors ended their second strike of the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-calls-out-cintris-rubbish-collecting-efforts-again-64048/
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
Global brands linked to latest shamed garment factory
Italian sportswear brand Kappa and U.S.-based retail giant Walmart apparently source clothing from the latest addition to the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) list of low-compliance factories, according to a union leader at the factory who provided the branded tags from the clothing her members cut ...
Sun Heng and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-brands-linked-to-latest-shamed-garment-factory-63900/
Thais detain ‘large number’
A large group of Cambodian migrants were rounded up and detained in a Bangkok prison at the end of May, where many still remain, Thai officials told the Post yesterday. Separate unconfirmed reports that at least 130 Cambodians had been in detention for more than a month emerged ...
Alice Cuddy and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-detain-%E2%80%98large-number%E2%80%99
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
Ocean loses case: Bosses told to pay out lost wages
The Arbitration Council Foundation yesterday ruled that a Phnom Penh garment factory that announced it was closing for a month must pay employees 100 per cent of the wages they would have earned during that period. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ocean-loses-case-bosses-told-pay-out-lost-wages
Strike divides Cintri workers
While Phnom Penh’s garbage truck drivers returned to work yesterday following a brief strike, piles of refuse continued to mount in parts of the city, as trash collectors who had joined the drivers’ cause were continuing the strike alone as of 7pm. On Monday, drivers of ...
Pech Sotheary and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-divides-cintri-workers
Thais mandate migrant worker health checks
On the road to legal employment in Thailand, Cambodian migrant workers are being made to undergo check-ups that have them cough, strip and give blood and urine samples to prove they are physically and mentally sound enough to work in the country. Obtaining a workers’ permit, ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-mandate-migrant-worker-health-checks