Labor

PHNOM PENH: Cambodia is trying to boost the tourism industry after its contribution to economic growth and offering job creation as ASEAN economic integration 2015 is moving and the free flow of workforce mobilization has been needed to help ensure steady growth. Cambodia’s tourism sector, in 2011, offered 350,000 direct jobs and millions of ...

Thousands of garment workers went on strike yesterday demanding higher wages, fees for transportation and housing, and in one case, the elimination of smelly odours caused by a fish farm near their factory. Workers burned tyres and one union leader was allegedly assaulted with an electric ...

The government will spend a total of $85 million, funded by a Japanese government loan, for the third and final phase of the expansion of Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, which will more than double the port’s import-export capacity by 2012, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. “It ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on unions, employers and the Ministry of Labour to take a collaborative approach to stamping out violent protests in the garment industry, a unionist said yesterday. During a Saturday conference involving 4,000 people from more than 60 union groups, Hun ...

Cambodia has made real progress in decreasing cases of malaria – already surpassing the Millennium Development Goal for malaria four years ahead of the 2015 target – but certain communities still face major challenges in combating the disease, officials said yesterday on World Malaria Day. Although ...

A draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) drawn up by Malaysia to regulate maids working in the country does not sufficiently protect their rights and needs improvements, an official at the Labor Ministry said on Thursday. Malaysian officials drew up the MoU between the two governments following ...

A large North American union has called on US retail giant Walmart to take immediate action against one of its seafood suppliers in Thailand accused of holding Cambodian workers in debt bondage while barely providing them with enough money to eat. The United Food and Commercial Workers ...

The leaders of seven major unions and labor confederations announced yesterday in a joint statement that they will form an inter-union committee to rally the government on raising the country’s minimum wage of $61, with the unions believe is too low. ...

Cambodia migrant workers seeking to leave allegedly exploitative conditions at the Phatthana Seafood factory in southern Thailand said yesterday that they were still being forced to pay to get their passports back. The factory, which exports fish to buyers across the world including Walmart, has come ...

Representatives from US sports brand Nike yesterday visited the company’s supplier factory in Kompong Speu province to investigate the cause of last week’s mass faintings, officials from the Ministry of Labor said. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety for the Labor Ministry’s health department, said ...

Representatives from US sports brand Nike will arrive today to investigate last week’s mass faintings at their supplier factory in Kompong Speu province, officials from the Labor Ministry and an International Labor Organization (ILO) representative said yesterday. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety for the ...

A teenager was one of 13 girls locked inside a recruitment company’s offices in the capital last year after being promised work as a maid in Malaysia, she told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. The court yesterday tried three people over alleged illegal detention and human ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen’s call on Tuesday to strengthen cooperation among ASEAN members to protect the rights of migrant workers echoed recent comments by rights groups who say further protections are necessary as the 2015 deadline for an integrated economic community looms. As that deadline approaches, ...

More than 100 female workers fainted yesterday in Kompong Speu province at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory manufacturing clothes for the US sports brand Nike, an official from the Ministry of Labor said. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational safety inside the ministry’s health department, said he ...

The Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU) sent a letter to the Ministry of Labor yesterday requesting that all of the country’s factory owners pay workers their salary earlier than usual ahead of Khmer New Year. Workers are normally paid on the fifth to the ...

Even with an improved domestic job market, many Cambodian workers are seeking jobs overseas, despite the risks. This is mainly due to the government’s failure to get the word out, Moeun Tola, a labor advocate at the Community Legal Education Center, told “Hello VOA” Thursday. “We see ...

A shortage of workers, particularly those with skills, is the biggest threat to economic growth in Cambodia today, Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), said yesterday. Speaking at the Greater Mekong Subregion Investment Policy Forum organized by the Organization ...

Three factory workers were injured yesterday during a protest in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district when more than 500 workers clashed with about 100 police officers, according to eyewitnesses and union representatives. Workers from Win Shingtex (Cambodia) Co Ltd had originally planned to march from the ...

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr chose Cambodia as his first official overseas trip since his March 2 appointment to the top foreign policy job. The Australian Labor Party politician, former journalist and longtime premier of New South Wales sat down on Monday evening with the ...

In an effort to stop mass faintings at garment factories, a government committee will issue a prakas this year aimed at reducing fatigue among workers by requiring factories to establish on-site housing, an official said yesterday. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational training at the Ministry ...

The Cambodian government was strengthening its capacity to combat human trafficking by focusing on poverty reduction and was eager to work with other groups tackling the crime, Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng said yesterday. “The issues of human trafficking and migrating workers are ...

Striking workers planned to set tyres aflame today outside a garment factory that supplies JC Penney in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district, union officials said yesterday on the sixth day of the strike at Hong Kong-owned Win Shing-tex Cambodia Co Ltd. Ath Thorn, head of ...

A union representative is accused of beating a rival over the head with a walkie-talkie during a factory protest yesterday in the latest burst of violence in one of Cambodia’s special economic zones. Bou Sokray, 25, a representative for the Coalition of Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union ...

The Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions will hand out the first of more than 60,000 pamphlets to factory workers today as it encourages them to demand a significant wage increase and to strike if their plea is ignored. ...