Labor

The garment industry could be close to renewing an industrial relations memorandum of understanding, but an independent union believes it is being edged out of negotiations because it opposes the use of short-term and fixed-duration contracts. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, said yesterday ...

The Chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, Van Sou Ieng, said that even if nutrition is an important factor in productivity, it should not the sole responsibility of the factory owner. “The deduction that the nutrition will automatically improve productivity is not necessarily true. ...

Nearly 2,000 workers at the Gawon Apparel Co. garment factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao City protested in front of the factory yesterday after they were informed that they would lose pay for any days missed during the commune election, which takes place Sunday, union representatives ...

About 200 people, including activist monk Loun Savath, rallied outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh yesterday in support of the 13 Boeung Kak women sentenced to prison in a three-hour trial last Thursday. Supporters of the women, including villagers, unions and human rights groups, called ...

A radio competition organized by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia will enable garment workers to showcase their knowledge and teach the public about the country’s Labor Law, an ILO representative said yesterday. “The objective is not only to allow workers to express their ...

A factory in Phnom Penh that assembles motorcycles for Honda decided on Friday to reinstate four workers who had been fired in December for creating a new trade union. About 300 workers at the Honda NCX Company in Pur Senchey district had been on strike since ...

About 300 workers from a Phnom Penh factory that assembles Honda motorcycles went on strike yesterday to rally for the reinstatement of their union representatives, in accordance with an order by the Arbitration Council, union representatives said yesterday. Yoeurng Sopheara, a legal officer at Cambodia Labor ...

The Australian government yesterday said it has been aware of poor working conditions and inappropriate surveying methods used on Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project since February and had ordered that the project’s partners investigate the matters. “The Australian Government was alerted to possible concerns about workplace health ...

Ministry of Social Affairs officials yesterday conducted a meeting between the owners of a factory, which produces clothing for H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss, and its workers, but threatened to file a complaint against the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), union representatives ...

Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna ...

The Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Friday questioned three female factory workers who were shot, allegedly by Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, during a protest inside a special economic zone (SEZ) in February, the plaintiffs said. More than 20 union leaders and labor activists also gathered ...

Major clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia’s garment factories have expressed concern about the growing number of strikes in the country and called for the renewal of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at preventing strikes, a representative from the International Labor Organization (ILO) said yesterday. ...

Major international garment and shoe brands have expressed interest in funding a food program that would feed Cambodian factory workers lunches in an effort to improve health and productivity, a labour advocate said on Wednesday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor ...

Two Cambodians were repatriated yesterday after being rescued from a fishing vessel at a port in Senegal on Friday, thanks to collaborative intervention by the International Organization for Migration and Senegalese authorities. Toy Koeun, 29, from Pursat province, and Som Pich, 20, from Kampot province, said ...

Thai police investigating allegations of myriad labor violations at a seafood factory employing hundreds of Cambodian migrant workers have given the facility a clean bill of health. A report last week by a Cambodian NGO, the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), based on interviews with workers ...

The owner of the $240 million Gold Tower 42 project in Phnom Penh has entered into arbitration with the project’s builder, in a bid to get work started again after construction halted on the project in September 2010 due to poor unit sales and cost ...

Cambodia needs to improve the skills of its workforce if it is to compete and benefit from Asean’s plan for greater integration and the free flow of skilled labor within the region by 2015, Minister of Labor Vong Sauth said on Friday at the Asean ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday repeated a call for Asean countries to put a stop to the exploitation of migrant workers and urged the acceleration of efforts to provide protection for such workers. At the Asean Summit last month, Mr. Hun Sen said that protecting the ...

Informal workers, a class that includes beer promoters, tuk tuk drivers and farmers, are among those who stand to benefit most from the upcoming trade-union law, observers say – and workers say it can’t come soon enough. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for ...

A Thai seafood factory supplying retail giant Walmart is continuing to violate its labor arrangements with hundreds of Cambodian workers there and could leave up to 100 of them stranded and jobless by next week, the Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC) said in a new ...

The families of two maids working in Malaysia asked Preah Vihear’s anti-human trafficking office and the human rights group Adhoc yesterday to intervene on behalf of their daughters, whom they haven’t seen or heard from since last year, officials said. ...

The Cambodian Legal Education Center (CLEC), a rights group, is investigating a mother’s claim that her daughter is being abused and held against her will by her employers in Malaysia, Moeun Tola, head of CLEC’s labor program, said yesterday. ...

Almost six months after the latest draft of the proposed trade-union law was sent to the Council of Ministers for approval, employers, unions and workers’ rights groups are left asking the same question: What’s happened to it? Confusion over the status of the landmark law, which ...

Cambodian officials asked their Thai counterparts during a meeting Friday to crack down on human smugglers on their side of the border who bring Cambodians in to work in Thailand. Banteay Meanchey provincial government spokesman Ouk Keoratanak said a delegation led by provincial Deputy Governor Try ...