Labor
Brands dodge blame over substandard factory
Behind the walls of the nondescript Hung Tak garment factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, more than 400 workers have been toiling in substandard conditions to cut and stitch clothing for some of the world’s biggest brands. But since the factory was named by the ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/brands-dodge-blame-over-substandard-factory-64606/
Ocean settles as other worker strikes gain steam
Workers from the beleaguered Ocean Garment Factory on Monday came to an agreement with management over furlough pay, following more than a month of protests. “All the workers at Ocean Garment Factory have accepted the offer from the factory and the strikes are finished now,” said ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ocean-settles-as-other-worker-strikes-gain-steam-64619/
Strike for a song: Employees ‘waste time on phones’
About 500 garment workers whose bosses have complained that they spend too much of their working day talking on the phone and listening to music protested outside their Kampong Speu factory yesterday, demanding better working conditions. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-song-employees-%E2%80%98waste-time-phones%E2%80%99
ANZ Bank accused of abandoning farmers after splitting with sugar firm
Early this month, in what looks like a failed attempt to save its reputation, Australia‘s ANZ Bank severed its ties with Phnom Penh Sugar, a company accused of a range of human rights abuses linked to its plantations in Kampong Speu province, Cambodia. The move ...
Sorya back at negotiating table
Former staffers of Phnom Penh Sorya Transportation will meet with a company representative tomorrow to demand reinstatement after more than two weeks of the firm’s continued refusal to comply with a decision by the Arbitration Council, they and the bus operator said yesterday. According to Yim ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sorya-back-negotiating-table
Four offices to open for Thailand-bound workers
Four “one-stop” offices to process documentation for Cambodians seeking legal work in Thailand will open on Tuesday after the Ministry of Labor issued a directive last week outlining how the migration process will operate, according to the head of the Ministry of Interior’s passport department. Mao ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/four-offices-to-open-for-thailand-bound-workers-64533/
Request rejected to have union head step down
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has rejected a request from two former members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU) to have the union’s president be forced to step down as he is investigated for embezzlement. Former CCAWDU officials Oum Visal and Roeun ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/request-rejected-to-have-union-head-step-down-64507/
Another deceived bride repatriated from China
A Cambodian woman who went to China to marry a man there was repatriated on Thursday after escaping from her husband’s house and finding refuge at the Cambodian consulate in Guangzhou. Yoeng Sreymom arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport at about 3:30 p.m. in the company ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-deceived-bride-repatriated-from-china-64430/
Employers snub talks over wages
Management at Ocean Garment factory yesterday flouted a Ministry of Labour invitation to sit at the negotiating table with employees protesting the factory’s refusal to abide by an Arbitration Council decision in their favour. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/employers-snub-talks-over-wages
Opposition supporters rally at Prey Sar prison to ask for the release of five lawmakers
About 100 CNRP activists and supporters gathered Thursday at Prey Sar prison to put pressure for the release of five opposition lawmakers and another supporter who are under detention. Policemen were seen guarding around the Prey Sar prison to prevent the protesters from approaching the site, ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=MWM3ODZkODg2MDI
Shoe factory workers strike for seven demands
About 1,000 workers from the Sun Well Shoes factory went on strike for the second day running Wednesday, appealing for wage benefits and better safety equipment. Half of the striking workers protested in front of the factory on Veng Sreng Street in Pur Senchey district on ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/shoe-factory-workers-strike-for-seven-demands-64344/
Trade unions approve minimum wage, draft law proposals
Representatives from 25 trade unions Monday sent a request to the Ministry of Labor seeking several changes to a controversial draft union law and asking that a new $160 monthly minimum wage for the country’s volatile garment sector take effect in October. Garment factory owners say ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trade-unions-approve-minimum-wage-draft-law-proposals-64044/
City hall calls out Cintri’s rubbish collecting efforts—again
Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong on Monday slammed municipal waste disposal company Cintri for its poor performance in collecting the city’s garbage after a strike by trash collectors last week once again left the streets a mess. Cintri’s trash collectors ended their second strike of the ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/city-hall-calls-out-cintris-rubbish-collecting-efforts-again-64048/
After factory ignores ruling, garment workers to march
Employees of the Ocean Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district continued to protest Monday against management’s decision to ignore an Arbitration Council ruling on owed wages. Cheng Chhorn, secretary general of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said the workers will march to ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-factory-ignores-ruling-garment-workers-to-march-64074/
Concern for children as Cambodian workers begin to flood back
Cambodian workers are migrating back to Thailand en-masse following a mass exodus last month in the wake of the coup. This movement has sparked safety concerns for young children travelling alongside their parents, says World Vision, one of the world’s largest aid agencies. “Our staff working ...
The Nation News Staff
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Concern-for-children-as-Cambodian-workers-begin-to-30238410.html
Migrants told to get permits
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday called on all undocumented Cambodians in Thailand to register for a legal work permit at one of that country’s newly opened one-stop service centres. Thailand’s junta began piloting the latest temporary registration centres at the end of June and ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-told-get-permits
Ocean fight looks to the government
Days after a Phnom Penh garment factory refused to abide by an Arbitration Council decision in favour of its employees, more than 1,000 workers are expected to demonstrate in front of the Ministry of Labour today. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ocean-fight-looks-government
Getting on the same page
In what is shaping up to be the first of several pivotal garment wage talks, unions are to meet for the first time today to discuss the amount they should request for next year’s minimum wage – but labour leaders and observers say coming to ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/getting-same-page
Arbitrator ready to hear cases
More than a year after it was established, the National Commercial Arbitration Centre (NCAC), Cambodia’s first third-party dispute resolution body, is finally ready to take on its first case. During its first annual assembly in Phnom Penh on Friday, the NCAC confirmed that it had finalised ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/arbitrator-ready-hear-cases
Global brands linked to latest shamed garment factory
Italian sportswear brand Kappa and U.S.-based retail giant Walmart apparently source clothing from the latest addition to the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) list of low-compliance factories, according to a union leader at the factory who provided the branded tags from the clothing her members cut ...
Sun Heng and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-brands-linked-to-latest-shamed-garment-factory-63900/
Coup reorients relations with Cambodia
Thailand’s military coup has reoriented Thai-Cambodian relations with surprising effects. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s overt enmity and confrontation towards Thailand over the past several years have become conciliatory and accommodating for the time being. Whether this new pattern of bilateral ties is solidified depends ...
Thitinan Pongsudhirak
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/419967/coup-reorients-relations-with-cambodia
Garment factory donates rice to workers
Grand Twins International (Cambodia), a manufacturer for U.S. athletic apparel brands, donated 80 tons of jasmine rice to about 6,000 workers at its factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district on Thursday. Grand Twins officials could not be reached for comment, but local media reported ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/garment-factory-donates-rice-to-workers-63893/
Thais detain ‘large number’
A large group of Cambodian migrants were rounded up and detained in a Bangkok prison at the end of May, where many still remain, Thai officials told the Post yesterday. Separate unconfirmed reports that at least 130 Cambodians had been in detention for more than a month emerged ...
Alice Cuddy and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/thais-detain-%E2%80%98large-number%E2%80%99
Workers protest after factory ignores arbitrator
About 400 workers protested and burned tires outside the Ocean Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district on Thursday after the factory failed to follow an Arbitration Council ruling from Wednesday to give the workers $120 each in furlough pay since the factory suspended ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/workers-protest-after-factory-ignores-arbitrator-63891/