Labor policy and administration

Cambodia’s garment manufacturers and trade unionists on Monday began a negotiation on pay rise for garment workers in 2014 but reached no any agreement because the union representatives demanded to double the current wage. The talk was made between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co-chair ...

Members of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) said during a conference Sunday that they are “fed up” with the government for not controlling strikes by labor unions. “All of us have the same issue: illegal strikes,” Van Porphin, a member of GMAC’s executive committee, ...

In a letter to three government ministries, a local domestic worker rights group last week demanded wage increases and limitations on work hours. Von Samphous, president of the fledgling Cambodian Domestic Worker Network (CDWN), sent the letter to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry ...

Clothing giant H&M is considering raising retail prices and passing the buck onto the consumer to help pay higher wages to garment workers in poor countries. There won’t be any price increases in the short-term, but it “might be a possibility” in the future, Helena Helmersson, ...

Local and international organizations on Tuesday marked International Day of Persons With Disabilities by calling on the government to extend its efforts to employ more disabled people beyond Phnom Penh’s environs. A sub-decree attached to the government’s Disability Law, enacted in July 2009, states that the ...

The opposition CNRP has written to the embassies of Singapore and Malaysia requesting copies of draft agreements with the Cambodian government on sending migrant workers to the countries that they say they were not privy to. A Ministry of Labor official last month said the government ...

Swedish clothing giant H&M recently announced a program to boost wages for garment workers in its sub-contractor factories around the world, including in Cambodia, where the company is a leading buyer. H&M’s announcement comes at the end of a turbulent year in the garment sector ...

Cambodia celebrated its 15th annual Cambodia Day of Persons with Disabilities and the 31st annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities, on Tuesday at the Phnom Penh Cultural Center. Prime Minister Hun Sen attended the event themed, “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible ...

A nearly four-month strike, punctuated by a violent clash between unionists and police that left one bystander dead, could come to an end this afternoon. Officials from SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) – which represents a ...

Inspectors from the ministry in charge of construction who were called to investigate a “shaking” garment factory last Tuesday discovered that an entire extra storey had been built without permission or oversight from authorities, officials said yesterday. As workers returned to the Siu Quinh Garment factory ...

Only about 10 per cent of Cambodia’s workforce is being granted paid annual leave, a report released last week says. Under the 1997 Labour Law, workers who work a standard 48-hour week are entitled to 18 days of paid annual leave, in addition to one day ...

More than 10 percent of children in the country aged between 5 and 17 work as laborers, with more than 5 percent engaged in “hazardous labor,” a situation that must be addressed by the government, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a report released ...

The chief executive of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) yesterday said the factory has agreed to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, a sticking point which could end a strike that has lasted more than three months. Hours after the Ministry of Labour announced the garment ...

The Ministry of Labour, Government of Cambodia, would set the 2014 minimum wage for garment workers next month, reports The Phnom Penh Post. A working group consisting of representatives of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association in Cambodia (GMAC), workers’ representatives and factory managers met officials at ...

After the management of an embattled garment factory this week refused to follow a government order to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, unionists and observers are at a divergence of opinion over how the state should respond. “It’s fairly unprecedented,” Dave Welsh, country director ...

The minimum wage for garment factory workers can only be raised if international clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia pay more for their products, a Ministry of Labor official said Tuesday. Khieu Savuth, chief of the Ministry of Labor’s labor conflict commission, laid down the challenge a ...

Four trade unions on Tuesday demanded that Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers raise the minimum wage of their workers and provide them with additional benefits, threatening a nationwide strike and demonstrations if they do not comply. In a joint letter to the Van Sou Ieng, president ...

Flouting a government order, representatives of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd yesterday refused to rehire 19 union representatives and activists during a meeting with the Ministry of Labour. Rehiring the 19 has been the key sticking point in ending the three-month-old strike, which erupted into violence ...

The Ministry of Labour has ordered management at a Kandal province garment factory to clean their workroom and limit employees’ overtime hours, in response to over 100 workers fainting over two days. During a visit to King First Industrial Co, Ltd’s Kandal location yesterday, Seng Sakada, ...

H&M has pledged to pay a living wage to 850,000 textile workers after expressing frustration over a lack of action by governments to address working conditions in Asian factories in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster. The world’s second-biggest clothing retailer said it would support ...

About 50 garment workers fainted yesterday at the King First Industrial factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, union representatives said. Khouth Touch, the Free Trade Union president at the factory, said a number of workers had experienced stomach aches and diarrhoea that morning. ...

Meas Sotha is not leaving the SL Garment Factory. As tensions between management and workers have intensified over the past five months, Mr. Sotha and his role at the strike-plagued factory have moved center stage. Workers claim that since Mr. Sotha took over from a previous SL ...

About 200 workers protested outside SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district Wednesday demanding that managers reinstate 19 union representatives before a 15-day deadline set by the government elapses. The Council of Ministers has ordered the factory to rehire the fired unionists or face punitive ...

More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers. Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on ...