Labor
Dismissed protests in S'ville over sacked staff
Dozens of workers in Preah Sihanouk province marched on the local labour department yesterday after three days of protests against the sacking of seven employees. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://phnompenhpost.com
Help Cambodia's garment workers, unions urge Business Secretary
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, must force British clothing companies to investigate whether garments sourced from Cambodia are made at factories with fair labour practices, the unions have warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, has written to Mr Cable warning that ...
Staff of suspended factory demand wages
About 70 workers from the Xing Chang Sin factory marched to the Ministry of Labor on Friday to demand intervention after the factory allegedly failed to pay wages for the past two months. Vong Sovann, deputy director general at the Labor Ministry’s general department of ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/staff-of-suspended-factory-demand-wages-65571/
Migrants in ‘hurry’ to get back to work
A survey of 10 Cambodian provinces is studying the whereabouts and plans of migrant workers who were recently repatriated from Thailand, fearing crackdowns on foreign workers there after the coup. During a workshop hosted by Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility (CARAM) yesterday, Ministry ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-%E2%80%98hurry%E2%80%99-get-back-work
Workers ill after fainting at factory
A lingering odour in a Sixplus Industry garment factory is aggravating the already-fragile health of its workers, 100 of whom fainted last weekend, and has forced the factory to send many of them back to health centres. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-ill-after-fainting-factory
Recruitment agencies operate without oversight
In June, after about a quarter million migrant workers returned from their jobs in Thailand fearing the military junta’s crackdown on illegal labor, Cambodia’s government announced it had slashed the cost of emigration, and would charge workers only $49 to legally return to work across ...
Phorn Bopha and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/recruitment-agencies-operate-without-oversight-65497/
Much to discuss at upcoming regional forum, analysts say
Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries are preparing for a major regional meeting, which will be held in Burma Aug. 10. Analysts say Cambodia should raise ongoing security issues that threaten regional economic integration at the Asean Regional Forum. The South China Sea issue continues to ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/much-to-discuss-at-upcoming-regional-forum-analysts-say/1968851.html
Thailand's anti-human trafficking efforts to benefit Myanmar workers
Thailand is on the process to heighten flexibility for workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia to obtain legal identification paperwork and land needed work in the country, said the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington. In the release issued chiefly to show Thailand’s actions to fight human ...
The Nation News Staff
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Thailands-anti-human-trafficking-efforts-to-benefi-30239920.html
Unions want arbitration council deal renewed
Trade unions at either end of the political divide Wednesday said they were eager to renew their agreement with garment factories to abide by the rulings of the country’s Arbitration Council, with some changes, despite a new report showing that both unions and employers often ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/unions-want-arbitration-council-deal-renewed-65410/
Expatriates need IDs: government
Expatriates working in Cambodia without labour identification cards will face fines and even jail when strict new enforcement kicks in, according to a July 16 joint statement from the ministries of interior and labour. Government inspectors, the statement adds, will begin checking workplaces immediately in order ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/expatriates-need-ids-government
Wages do not compute: ILO
NGOs say the Ministry of Labour’s use of its own method for determining the garment industry’s minimum wage is risking a repeat of the tensions that exploded in violent protests in January, when authorities killed at least five people. More than six months after the Labour ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wages-do-not-compute-ilo
Factory ends strike after compromise
Workers at a Taiwanese-owned sandal factory in Kompong Cham province on strike since last week over an eight-point list of demands agreed to go back to work Tuesday after reaching a deal with management that included a monthly lunch stipend. A few hundred of the Carlington ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kompong-cham-factory-ends-strike-after-compromise-65261/
Fire-ravaged factory’s former owner to give workers loans
The former owner of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire on Monday has agreed to provide loans to about 900 out-of-work employees until the current owner decides whether and how to pay them due wages and severance. Authorities, meanwhile, said they still did ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fire-ravaged-factorys-former-owner-to-give-workers-loans-65259/
Demonstrators say jobs in Japan promised
Hundreds of Cambodians hoping to migrate to Japan to work in the electronics industry yesterday protested outside an NGO that they claim conned them out of up to $200 each with promises of jobs. About 100 protesters – out of a total of 300 who are ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/demonstrators-say-jobs-japan-promised
Cambodia’s ongoing human trafficking problem
Svay Pak is an internationally known district for child sex in Cambodia’s capital of Phnom Penh, where foreign men come to seek sex with young girls. According to a 2011 study by ECPAT Cambodia, around 75 percent of the victims of sex trafficking within Cambodia were children. The study also ...
Kyla Ryan
http://thediplomat.com/2014/07/cambodias-ongoing-human-trafficking-problem/
Odor causes nearly 200 garment workers to faint at 2 factories
More than 190 workers at two separate garment factories fainted at work on Friday and Saturday, both times after complaining of foul odors, union leaders and workers said. At the Chinese-owned Sixplus Industry factory in Kandal province’s Mok Kampoul district, which makes sportswear for retail giant ...
Workers clash: At factory in Kandal, fight over protest
Melees at a garment factory in Kandal province between striking workers and employees who are against the industrial action have left five people mildly injured. Employees at the Tae Young factory began striking a week ago, calling for two administrators at the plant to be fired, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-clash-factory-kandal-fight-over-protest
On the march: Days-long strike shifts to district HQ
After striking for more than a week, employees at Phnom Penh’s Sun Well Shoes yesterday marched to Por Sen Chey district hall, demanding their voices be heard. Some 300 people marched from their Veng Sreng Boulevard factory with a list of seven demands, including the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/march-days-long-strike-shifts-district-hq
Minister lauds controversial sugar industry
Environment Minister Say Sam Al on Wednesday lauded the country’s controversial sugar industry and the jobs it has created, saying that companies operating in the sector need to be defended against the widespread criticism they have been receiving. Rights groups and the opposition CNRP have undertaken ...
Khuon Narim and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-lauds-controversial-sugar-industry-64810/
After deal, unions expect support
News of an end to a year-long political deadlock has labour union leaders believing the opposition party can bring their interests to parliament, but a lack of follow-through could cost the Cambodia National Rescue Party vital support from one of its key interest groups. Different union ...
Sean Teehan, Mom Kunthear and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-deal-unions-expect-support
Delegation to investigate maid trade in Singapore
Seng Sakada, director-general of the Labor Ministry’s labor department, will lead a delegation to Singapore on Saturday to study the ministry’s pilot program to send domestic workers to the city-state, a recruitment agency director confirmed Wednesday. The team will investigate the success of the program, which ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/delegation-to-investigate-maid-trade-in-singapore-64816/
Garment workers demand district intervention
About 200 garment workers on Wednesday marched from the Sun Well Shoe Factory on Veng Sreng Street to the Pur Senchey district office, demanding intervention in an ongoing dispute over their wages, a union representative said. At 7 a.m., the workers left the factory, marching out ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/garment-workers-demand-district-intervention-64820/
Six more offices to open for Thai-bound workers
Passport offices will be set up in six more provinces in an effort to ease the remigration process for Cambodian workers heading back to Thailand, according to a Ministry of Interior official. Mao Chandara, director of the Ministry of Interior’s passport department, said the new offices ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-more-offices-to-open-for-thai-bound-workers-64806/
Easing sex trade laws ‘could lower’ HIV rate
Decriminalising sex work could slash the world’s HIV infections by a third or more, according to a new study. Published yesterday in health journal The Lancet, the paper says that punitive treatment of sex workers can “elevate HIV acquisition and transmission risks”. In Cambodia, which has Southeast Asia’s ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/easing-sex-trade-laws-%E2%80%98could-lower%E2%80%99-hiv-rate