Labor

Close to 300 workers at Kampong Speu province’s Grandis Timber Limited, a teak nursery, have sought the aid of an agricultural union after they were asked to stop coming to work last week after management said they did not have enough work for them. ...

The Interior Ministry is hoping last year’s relative decrease in traffic accidents and deaths during the Pchum Ben holiday is a sign of things to come and asked citizens again this year to drive safely as they crisscross the country to celebrate the holiday. In a ...

Unions decided to lower their demand for $179.60 per month as the new minimum wage for the garment, footwear and textile industries in 2017, telling employers yesterday that they were dropping the figure by $2 – matching the $2 employers added to their figure earlier ...

Employer representatives and trade unions sat down across from each other for the first time yesterday for head-to-head negotiations over next year’s garment sector minimum wage, with factory owners reluctantly offering a small $2 increase to their earlier proposal of $144.20. ...

On an average day, more than 100 Cambodians are sent back from Thailand through the Poipet International Checkpoint amid the Thai government’s crackdown on undocumented foreign workers, according to the Banteay Meanchey provincial governor yesterday. ...

Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand will have to pay 950 baht (about $27) to receive a travel card or Overseas Cambodian Worker Card (OCWC), the Labor Ministry announced yesterday. From September 26, workers will be able to apply for the documents, under a bilateral agreement signed ...

The Ministry of Labour yesterday met with the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, the industry trade group, to discuss the reasons behind the latter’s proposal of a $144 monthly minimum wage. ...

The Labour Ministry, if ordered by the National Election Committee, will request employers to grant workers time off to enrol to vote in their native communes, according to an official. ...

Female workers are still being paid less than their male counterparts on construction sites, while building companies value male construction workers as more skilled than women, according to a CARE Cambodia report released Friday. CARE’s research paints a comprehensive picture of the situation of women working ...

The government revealed its favored figure for the new garment and footwear industry minimum wage in 2017 during a Technical Working Group meeting on Friday, telling attendees that they believed it should be raised by about $8 per month – representing only a five percent ...

Employers released their starting figure for the new minimum wage yesterday, saying in an open letter that they planned to enter tripartite negotiations with $144.20 per month as their goal for 2017. In a letter from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed by secretary-general ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday that Cambodia should improve its business climate and enhance competitiveness by upgrading infrastructure, improving the quality of labor, and strengthening governance as China changes its trade pattern by moving up the value chain. ...

Cambodian interns working in Japan on the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) must not run away from their employer or seek work with a firm different to the one they are contracted with, the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training said in a statement last ...

The Foreign Ministry last Thursday secured the release of 23 Cambodians who had been arrested and detained last month for overstaying their visas and working illegally in Malaysia. Another 16 Cambodians detained by Thai authorities for lacking passports were released as well. ...

A group of 17 union leaders will demand $179.60 when they sit down for the latest round of negotiations this week to determine the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs more than 600,000 Cambodians. The monthly minimum wage is currently $140. The new figure ...

Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday told stakeholders involved in the upcoming minimum wage negotiations to base their demands on the country’s economic situation, and not to try to influence the process through protests or demonstrations. Talks over the 2017 minimum wage for the garment sector are ...

A report published last week by the UN Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT) says the main cause of human trafficking from Cambodia to China was a lack of jobs and low wages, forcing many young women to look at opportunities abroad. ...

A new report detailing the experiences of 42 women trafficked from Cambodia as brides to China found that officials in both countries were largely unsupportive in helping women escape once they were caught in unwanted domestic captivity. ...

Since the start of the year, department authorities at the Ministry of Interior have arrested more than 10,000 illegal workers, with the bulk of them being construction workers. However, industry experts and investors are split on the opinions that the arrest will impinge on the ...

The number of Cambodian women now thought to be caught in Saudi Arabia’s sex industry after being trafficked in the past year has risen to more than 20, officials said on Wednesday. However, the government remained tight-lipped about its efforts to rescue the women, while two ...

A workers’ strike escalated on Monday at Sihanoukville’s Angkor Beer-producing Cambrew factory, protesters said, with the company acknowledging that the work stoppage was causing major disruptions. ...

A California judge has ordered lawyers representing two US seafood companies to appear in court for a scheduling conference following a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven Cambodians who claim they were duped into a life of servitude working in factories that supply the firms. ...

Nearly 30 Cambodians detained in Thailand since early July were released last week, though four remain in detention, an official at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok said. The migrant workers – 20 women and 14 men – were arrested on July 7 and taken to a ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn has ordered Cambodian Embassy staff in Malaysia to find out whether more nationals are being held in any of the country’s detention facilities after 18 Cambodians were released from a prison in Kuala Lumpur last week. ...