Labor

Cambodia’s growth largely depends on a labor-intensive economy in agriculture, garment factories, and goods and services. Due to lower wages and poor incentives, there is a large outflow of Cambodian workers to Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and China, and that, in the long run, could cause ...

About 40 workers from Phnom Penh’s Meroson garment factory delivered a petition signed by 700 of their colleagues to a representative of Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday, calling on the premier to intervene in their dispute over what they say is the factory’s failure ...

UK retailer Marks & Spencer and the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) have disputed the details of a report alleging labour rights abuses are still rife in the country’s garment factories, with both claiming they are committed to providing and supporting safe working conditions. ...

On a dusty highway on the edge of this port city, thousands of young women and a few hundred young men block evening traffic as they stream out of the New Star Shoes factory. ...

Gender equality is “humanity’s biggest project,” Lakshmi Puri told the U.N. this past week. Puri, the deputy executive director of U.N. Women, wants to achieve “Planet 50-50” by 2030. When it comes to the workplace, equal employment opportunities aren’t just a benefit to women. Several new ...

Cambodia has signed off on a draft agreement that would lift a moratorium on sending maids to Malaysia, imposed four years ago amid widespread reports of abuse, and is waiting for the Malaysian government’s approval, a Labor Ministry official said Tuesday. ...

Daun Penh district governor Kuoch Chamroeun on Monday negotiated a truce between two rival groups of tuk-tuk drivers who clashed violently earlier this month in a dispute over passengers. ...

More than 200 striking workers demonstrated in front of Siko Phnom Penh Garment Factory in the capital’s Dangkor district yesterday after management fired an employee who founded a new labour union there, according to a union representative. ...

A Cambodian couple “trafficked” to work in Malaysia returned home Friday morning after being “rescued” by the Cambodian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, a government official said yesterday. ...

The owner of an independent radio station engulfed in a bitter dispute with a number of his employees blamed the conflict on a prominent union leader on Friday. ...

Cambodia has rejected a U.S.- based Human Rights Watch’s “labor abuse” report, saying the report is groundless, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Labor late on Friday. ...

Survivors of human trafficking in South-East Asia require better access to health services, especially related to mental health, a study says. ...

Nearly 200 rubber plantation workers in Mondolkiri province on Thursday ended a three-day strike over wages and working conditions, despite not having resolved their concerns with Socfin KCD, the controversial French firm that owns the plantation. ...

Human Rights Watch says lax labor laws in Cambodia are allowing garment factories, including many suppliers for Western brands, to take advantage of vulnerable workers. In a report released Thursday, the New York-based rights group documented a “persistent pattern of labor rights violations,” including forced overtime, ...

Human Rights Watch says it has uncovered alleged abuses at Cambodian garment factories that supply Marks & Spencer, Gap, H&M, Adidas and Armani. The pressure group found evidence of discrimination and anti-union practices, it says. ...

A combative union leader who was released on bail last week pending trial on charges of extortion and making threats during a strike last month vowed Wednesday to continue leading his militant brand of industrial action if workers called upon him. ...

A new union has been founded pledging to offer members a post-retirement pension with a novel twist – it will be funded by sponsorship from private companies. The head of the new Workers Retirement Fund of Cambodia Union president, Sidney Sok Ke, claims to have spent ...

Workers at a factory that recently shuttered due to bankruptcy protested yesterday and vowed to continue to do so, after they were paid only part of their severance stipulated under the Kingdom’s Labour Law. Kui Xing factory in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district closed its doors ...

More than 600,000 migrant workers in Thailand who would have faced deportation at the end of the month when their temporary work permits were set to expire now have until the end of June to apply for a one-year renewal, an NGO said Tuesday. ...

Three Cambodian people who were cheated to work abroad returned home on Tuesday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation said. ...

The Ministry of Environment is set to join the Ministry of Labour in the monitoring of garment factory workplaces, after creating a working group that will probe the environmental safety of all plants in Cambodia. At a press conference at the ministry yesterday, Minister of Environment ...

More than 400 former employees of the abandoned DF Fashion Apparel (Cambodia) in Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district will each receive between $500 and $600 in back pay owed to them today. ...

Some 170 workers at a rubber company in Mondulkiri began striking yesterday for the right to unionise, the reversal of a recent pay cut and the reinstatement of two staffers who were allegedly fired unjustly, workers said. ...

Cambodia has much potential in the growth of science and technology, particularly given the motivation of young students, a US official says. In a visit to Cambodia last week, Geraldine Richmond, the US science envoy to Southeast Asia, told VOA Khmer she was surprised to see how ...