Labor

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. ...

Cambodian embassy officials in Thailand are now assisting migrant workers in Thai prisons by providing lawyers for them. Embassy officials also announced they are looking for relatives of a Cambodian man who died in Thailand late last month to take his body, which is being ...

Insurance sales have grown by 37 percent in the first half of the year, totaling $56 million, the Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC) announced in a report Tuesday.  The increase, up from $40.9 million for the same period last year, has been driven by a ...

The abuse of Cambodians employed in Thailand’s fishing industry was raised yesterday in a letter from the government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) to their Thai counterparts, calling for improved monitoring of the much criticized and troubled industry. ...

Unions meeting on Friday arrived at an estimated cost-of-living salary for garment workers ahead of minimum wage talks, one remarkably similar to the monthly wage they’ve demanded two years running, though suggested the final number they push for will be higher. ...

Nearly 26,000 undocumented Cambodian workers were deported by Thai authorities through border checkpoints, primarily Poipet and other secondary border crossings in Banteay Meanchey province, in the first six months of this year, an official said. ...

As unions, employers and government officials met for the first time in the run-up to the annual battle over the garment industry’s minimum wage yesterday, another group of labour and advocacy groups were asking when they would be part of those discussions. ...

Under Cambodian law, the right to organize is supposed to be ironclad. No employer, government agent or citizen may impede union activity. Inside the walls of Cambodia’s largest special economic zones (SEZs), however, In These Times’ reporters saw a system designed to tightly control the workforce by ...

Almost 100 workers from the Chung Fai Knitwear FTY factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district gathered in front of the Municipal Courthouse again yesterday, demanding the court issue an arrest warrant for the owner of their factory, who fled the country last month and has ...

Sixteen former staff members at the Sihanoukville provincial Multi-Technical Training Institute filed a sweeping complaint against the school’s married directors with the Ministry of Labor over the weekend. ...

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been in hot water since he told an EU parliamentary meeting on July 13 that he wanted them to consider decreasing garment imports from Cambodia in the hope it would pressure Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government into complying ...

About 300 workers from South Korean firm LG Electronics gathered at the Ministry of Labor yesterday morning to protest against alleged mistreatment by their South Korean boss under Cambodian law. ...

Trade-related labour provisions, such as ones that address labour relations or minimum working conditions for employees, do not harm business or make trade provisions less popular, according to a study released today by the United Nations labour agency. ...

Prominent union leader Pav Sina was questioned in court on Thursday about a forgery and disinformation complaint filed against him by a garment factory, a charge he rejected as being an invention meant to stall attempts by workers to unionize.   ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs is looking for ways to bring old pension plans into line with pensions offered to more recently retired government workers.   ...

Employees of a controversial monkey breeding farm in Pursat City who protested earlier this week for higher wages have accepted their employer’s offer of a $16 monthly wage increase, authorities said on Thursday.   ...

The Thai Labor Ministry yesterday said it would refuse to extend the July 29 deadline for migrant workers to register themselves, stating they will arrest workers who have not registered from next month. ...

The labor dispute between workers and employers at the Aerosoft Summit Footwear factory in Battambang province’s Sampov Laun district is still raging due to the company’s refusal to allow workers back to the factory at the provincial governor’s request. ...

More than 100 striking workers at the Vanny Bio-Research company in Pursat town agreed to go back to work yesterday after mediators promised to find an adequate resolution to their demands for a wage hike. The company breeds and cares for 30,000-40,000 monkeys they sell to ...

At least three garment workers were hospitalized yesterday after a ceiling collapsed at a garment factory in Kampong Chhnang town, according to officials. ...

Local industry experts responded yesterday to a new report that warns the majority of Cambodia’s garment sector workers could lose their jobs in the coming two decades as automation and innovative technologies replace low-skilled labour and allow multinational producers to move their operations closer to ...

The Kampot Provincial Court on Thursday released three union leaders without charge after the Cambo T.D.G. garment factory dropped its complaint against the trio in return for an end to a two-week strike. ...