Labor policy and administration

More than 70 workers fainted over three days at a garment factory in Kompong Speu province after complaining of difficulty breathing, a unionist and employee said Monday. ...

In an effort to encourage literacy among garment factory workers, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and NGO Sipar are working together to open libraries in 15 factories in the Kingdom in the next three years. ...

Following a meeting at the Labor Ministry’s conflict resolution department Thursday, the Capitol Tours bus company and five of its drivers—who claim they were fired for attempting to organize a union—remained deadlocked over their reinstatement. ...

More than 40 drivers for the Capitol Tours bus company went on strike Wednesday, protesting outside the company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district to demand the reinstatement of five employees they claim were fired for trying to unionize. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Sam Rainsy yesterday told unionists that his party supports a minimum wage increase in the Kingdom’s garment industry to $180 per month in 2016. ...

In their continuing effort to stop illegal fishing in Cambodian waters, the Kingdom’s Immigration Police impounded 11 Vietnamese fishing boats last week caught in Cambodian territorial waters off Koh Kong province and ordered their 39 crew members deported. ...

About 200 workers from a factory that supplies sportswear giant Puma delivered a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet on Friday calling attention to their demands that five-year employment contracts be replaced by one-year contracts, a union leader said. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor granted about 25,000 work permits to foreigners in the first six months of 2015, about 5,000 more than the total of last year, a local newspaper reported Friday. ...

In the inaugural issue of its bulletin on Cambodia’s $5.8-billion garment industry, the International Labor Organization said Thursday that business remained strong on the back of rising exports despite a 28-percent hike to the sector’s minimum wage in January. ...

The Ministry of Labour granted about 25,000 work permits to foreigners in the first six months of 2015, about 5,000 more than they issued during all of last year. ...

The results of a Korean proficiency test for would-be migrant workers were released Wednesday, with more than 7,000 Cambodians qualifying as prospective laborers in South Korea’s agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors, according to officials. ...

At least 500 workers from three garment factories in Cambodia demonstrated on Tuesday outside the Labor Ministry in the capital Phnom Penh, demanding that government officials intervene in their quest for better working conditions and food and transportation subsidies. ...

After about 200 workers protested in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a CPP lawmaker said she traveled to a Chinese-owned garment factory in Kandal province to lobby management to rehire seven workers, including six who say they were fired earlier this month for taking part ...

About 100 striking workers from a Phnom Penh garment factory yesterday delivered a letter to the Ministry of Labour, asking for intervention in their industrial dispute.  ...

The International Labour Organization (ILO) on Thursday will launch a news bulletin focusing on Cambodia’s garment and shoe sector, aimed at providing data for Cambodian policymakers during annual minimum wage talks. ...

Cambodia’s campaign against illegal Vietnamese workers continues with 26 Vietnamese arrested in two days of raids on furniture factories in central and southern Phnom Penh. ...

An employee at a Phnom Penh garment finishing factory that supplies to clothing giant H&M was killed when shrapnel from a machine that exploded struck him in the head.​ ...

When hundreds of fishermen were rescued from a life of slavery on Thai fishing boats off the coast of Indonesia earlier this year, the world took notice. ...

Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have been granted an extension until March 2016 to register and remain in the country legally, following an official visit to Thailand from Cambodian Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong. ...

As Free Trade Union officials were putting together a list of demands for striking workers at a factory in Kompong Speu province on Tuesday, the union’s president, Chea Mony, was in Kampot province inspecting a plot of land for a Chinese firm looking to set ...

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has found a slight improvement in Cambodia’s garment factory working conditions, although issues of overtime and occupational safety and health continue, according to its latest report released on Wednesday. ...

The UN plans to devote resources to improving the sexual and reproductive health of young women working in garment factories. ...

Cambodian authorities must cooperate with Thailand to reform illegal fishing practices there, a lawmaker says. The governments of Cambodia and Thailand “have not been talking seriously to put strict conditions” on labor practices, she said. “They tend to deal with the problem case by casewith ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), which represents most of the country’s export-oriented garment factories, will establish a training institute with the aim of replacing more than 8,000 jobs in the garment industry held by foreign  workers with a highly skilled local workforce. ...