Labor

Sok Ren lives in a tiny room in a rented house in Phnom Penh. She has not been home in two years, having decided to leave a child behind and find work in the city’s garment sector.  Unions say workers need at least $177 ...

For the third straight year in a row, Cambodia has found itself on the Tier 2 Watch List of the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, a ranking reflective of a seeming inability to fully implement the country’s own anti-trafficking plan. ...

Hoping to help fill the void in reliable data that has stymied past negotiations on the minimum wage for the country’s garment workers, an international team of labor rights groups Monday hired a local research firm to find out exactly how much the workers are ...

The president of the Free Trade Union is slated to boycott this morning’s final meeting to discuss the trade union law, held at the Ministry of Labour. ...

A group of Capitol Tours bus drivers—five of whom claim they were fired for attempting to form a union—say they were attacked Monday by a group of more than 50 tuk-tuk drivers while protesting outside the transport company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district. ...

More than 70 workers fainted over three days at a garment factory in Kompong Speu province after complaining of difficulty breathing, a unionist and employee said Monday. ...

In an effort to encourage literacy among garment factory workers, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and NGO Sipar are working together to open libraries in 15 factories in the Kingdom in the next three years. ...

Following a meeting at the Labor Ministry’s conflict resolution department Thursday, the Capitol Tours bus company and five of its drivers—who claim they were fired for attempting to organize a union—remained deadlocked over their reinstatement. ...

Union leaders have sent a request to the Ministry of Labor to make changes in a draft law to regulate unions, which experts say could be used to severely limit the freedom of assembly for workers. Earlier this month, some 200 union members met to ...

More than 40 drivers for the Capitol Tours bus company went on strike Wednesday, protesting outside the company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district to demand the reinstatement of five employees they claim were fired for trying to unionize. ...

Youth vocational training may be the key to curbing migration and combating poverty in Cambodia’s most vulnerable communities, according to child welfare NGO Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE), which is helping to roll out a technical skills program for high school dropouts. ...

Chea Mony said Monday that he would fulfill a longtime ambition and join the CNRP when he relinquishes his position as head of the Free Trade Union (FTU), which was formed in 1996 by his slain brother Chea Vichea and opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...

A security guard hired by the Union Development Group, a Chinese firm building a $3.8-billion tourist mecca in a remote coastal area of Koh Kong province, was on Monday handed a one-year suspended sentence for punching a local woman in the face last year, according ...

After 11 years as president of the Free Trade Union, Chea Mony said Sunday that he would not seek re-election as head of one of the country’s largest unions, which launched Cambodia’s labor movement nearly two decades ago. ...

Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) president Sam Rainsy yesterday told unionists that his party supports a minimum wage increase in the Kingdom’s garment industry to $180 per month in 2016. ...

In their continuing effort to stop illegal fishing in Cambodian waters, the Kingdom’s Immigration Police impounded 11 Vietnamese fishing boats last week caught in Cambodian territorial waters off Koh Kong province and ordered their 39 crew members deported. ...

About 200 workers from a factory that supplies sportswear giant Puma delivered a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet on Friday calling attention to their demands that five-year employment contracts be replaced by one-year contracts, a union leader said. ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor granted about 25,000 work permits to foreigners in the first six months of 2015, about 5,000 more than the total of last year, a local newspaper reported Friday. ...

In the inaugural issue of its bulletin on Cambodia’s $5.8-billion garment industry, the International Labor Organization said Thursday that business remained strong on the back of rising exports despite a 28-percent hike to the sector’s minimum wage in January. ...

The Ministry of Labour granted about 25,000 work permits to foreigners in the first six months of 2015, about 5,000 more than they issued during all of last year. ...

Authorities in Koh Kong province arrested 26 Vietnamese nationals on Tuesday after they found the group illegally living and fishing off of King Island in Kiri Sakor district. ...

The results of a Korean proficiency test for would-be migrant workers were released Wednesday, with more than 7,000 Cambodians qualifying as prospective laborers in South Korea’s agriculture, manufacturing and construction sectors, according to officials. ...

At least 500 workers from three garment factories in Cambodia demonstrated on Tuesday outside the Labor Ministry in the capital Phnom Penh, demanding that government officials intervene in their quest for better working conditions and food and transportation subsidies. ...

After about 200 workers protested in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a CPP lawmaker said she traveled to a Chinese-owned garment factory in Kandal province to lobby management to rehire seven workers, including six who say they were fired earlier this month for taking part ...