Labor policy and administration

Gender equality is “humanity’s biggest project,” Lakshmi Puri told the U.N. this past week. Puri, the deputy executive director of U.N. Women, wants to achieve “Planet 50-50” by 2030. When it comes to the workplace, equal employment opportunities aren’t just a benefit to women. Several new ...

A Cambodian couple “trafficked” to work in Malaysia returned home Friday morning after being “rescued” by the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a government official said yesterday. ...

The owner of an independent radio station engulfed in a bitter dispute with a number of his employees blamed the conflict on a prominent union leader on Friday. ...

Cambodia has rejected a U.S.- based Human Rights Watch’s “labor abuse” report, saying the report is groundless, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Labor late on Friday. ...

Nearly 200 rubber plantation workers in Mondolkiri province on Thursday ended a three-day strike over wages and working conditions, despite not having resolved their concerns with Socfin KCD, the controversial French firm that owns the plantation. ...

Human Rights Watch says lax labor laws in Cambodia are allowing garment factories, including many suppliers for Western brands, to take advantage of vulnerable workers. In a report released Thursday, the New York-based rights group documented a “persistent pattern of labor rights violations,” including forced overtime, ...

Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered alleged abuses at Cambodian garment factories that supply Marks & Spencer, Gap, H&M, Adidas and Armani. The pressure group found evidence of discrimination and anti-union practices, it says. ...

A new union has been founded pledging to offer members a post-retirement pension with a novel twist – it will be funded by sponsorship from private companies. The head of the new Workers Retirement Fund of Cambodia Union president, Sidney Sok Ke, claims to have spent ...

Workers at a factory that recently shuttered due to bankruptcy protested yesterday and vowed to continue to do so, after they were paid only part of their severance stipulated under the Kingdom’s Labour Law. Kui Xing factory in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district closed its doors ...

More than 600,000 migrant workers in Thailand who would have faced deportation at the end of the month when their temporary work permits were set to expire now have until the end of June to apply for a one-year renewal, an NGO said Tuesday. ...

The Ministry of Environment is set to join the Ministry of Labour in the monitoring of garment factory workplaces, after creating a working group that will probe the environmental safety of all plants in Cambodia. At a press conference at the ministry yesterday, Minister of Environment ...

Some 170 workers at a rubber company in Mondulkiri began striking yesterday for the right to unionise, the reversal of a recent pay cut and the reinstatement of two staffers who were allegedly fired unjustly, workers said. ...

About 25 former employees of the Chang Sheng Garment factory in Phnom Penh—which was destroyed in a fire last year—protested Sunday outside the offices of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU), which they accuse of withholding severance packages owed to some 180 ...

A businesswoman who was arrested in Thailand in December and extradited to Cambodia over charges of plotting to rape and murder the wife and daughter of the country’s commerce minister claimed after being denied bail by the Appeal Court on Tuesday that the minister was ...

About 200 garment workers protested outside the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday after 20 colleagues were turned away when trying to enter the Smart Shirts factory earlier the same morning, union leaders said. ...

The government was yesterday accused of dragging its feet after claiming it needed more time to ratify the International Labour Organization’s convention on protecting domestic worker rights. ...

Workers striking at Phnom Penh’s Quantum Clothing factory have filed a complaint against their managers for allegedly attacking two workers during a protest Wednesday outside the factory, according to a union representative and police official. ...

More than 100 workers at a Kandal province footwear factory fainted on Monday, according to a report on the National Police website. ...

A day after opposition leader Sam Rainsy publicly took up their cause, a young Cham Muslim woman and girl were repatriated Tuesday after being trafficked into the Malaysian sex trade and were greeted by Foreign Affairs Minister Hor Namhong. ...

Businesses with supply chains and operations in Burma, Bangladesh and Cambodia are benefiting from the world’s lowest labour costs, according to a new global ranking. Risk analytics company Verisk Maplecroft’s Labour Costs Index measures a combination of wages, employment regulations, social security contributions and labor productivity ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen broached the long-running issue of excessive overtime worked by garment factory employees in a speech yesterday, in what at least one analyst saw as a possible play for garment worker support. During his commencement speech at the National University of Management, the ...

Union leader Pav Sina on Monday filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry after an administrator at a Chinese-owned window factory in Svay Rieng province allegedly told three other members of his union that some factory owners were pooling money in order to have Mr. ...

Most employees at a shoe factory where more than 40 workers – including two pregnant women – fainted on Saturday afternoon will return to work today. ...

About 50 female workers fainted at a shoe factory in Kompong Chhnang province Saturday when an embossing machine burst into flames, causing smoke and fumes to fill part of the plant, a union official said Sunday. ...