Labor
Half-year protest shutters factory
A six-month protest over unpaid bonuses has seen production at a Por Sen Chey district box factory grind to a halt over the past four days, with more than 200 former employees blocking gates and preventing shipments. Former employees at Harta Packaging Industries began barricading gates ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/half-year-protest-shutters-factory
Arbitration’s cost and value
The Arbitration Council Foundation, credited with helping resolve about 1,700 industrial disputes, has reached verbal agreement with a Swedish aid agency to receive funding until the end of 2016, a spokesman said yesterday. But members of the labour-dispute resolution body desire a more permanent solution that ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/arbitration%E2%80%99s-cost-and-value
No change to Cambodia’s human trafficking rank
Cambodia failed to improve its ranking on the U.S.’ annual “Trafficking in Persons Report” after being demoted last year. Released on Friday, the global report again ranks Cambodia on the Tier 2 Watch List, one tier away from the lowest position, Tier 3. ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-change-to-cambodias-human-trafficking-rank-62097/
Gov’t begins effort to send workers back to Thailand
With Thailand and Cambodia both feeling the pinch from the sudden exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers out of Thailand, the two countries are now working together to try and get them back to their old jobs legally, as fast as possible. Some 225,000 Cambodians, ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-begins-effort-to-send-workers-back-to-thailand-62083/
Government urges NGOs to support migrant workers from Thailand
Relevant organizations have been actively cooperating with the government in providing transportation service for illegal migrant workers to return to their home after they were sent back by the junta in Thailand. The temporary estimation for the aid so far amounts to nearly 200,000$. The government ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=NDUzNzQxYjI3N2R
Influx of Cambodian workers back into Thailand seen with $4 passports
A Cambodian decree slashing the passport fee for would-be migrant workers to only $4 (about Bt 120) is expected to lead to an influx of workers from the neighbouring country into Thailand. Cambodian migrant workers who have just returned to Cambodia yesterday greeted the news with ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=M2JjNjM2ZWM0NzB
Illegal workers arrested, face Thai court
Thai authorities have arrested and are preparing to try 13 Cambodian migrant workers who were allegedly caught with fake stamps on their work papers as they tried to return home, Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong confirmed on Friday. The government also announced a plan to subsidize ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/illegal-workers-arrested-face-trial-in-thailand-62059/
UN Rights Envoy meets with interior minister, opposition leader
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Friday met with visiting U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi, who spent the first week of his 11th mission to Cambodia following up on electoral, labor and legislative reform. The special rapporteur later met with CNRP Vice President Kem Sokha, who ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-rights-envoy-meets-with-interior-minister-opposition-leader-62061/
Workers block gates, burn tires at Japanese-owned box factory
About 80 workers protesting against a Japanese factory in Phnom Penh that produces cardboard boxes blocked the gates Friday after managers refused to hold a meeting with employees. Workers burned tires in front of the Harta Packaging factory, which they have been protesting against since February, ...
Nearly all illegal Cambodian migrants working in Thailand return home: labor minister
Cambodian Minister of Labor Ith Samheng said Friday that nearly all illegal Cambodian migrant laborers working in Thailand have returned home in fears of a junta’s crackdown on illegal foreign workers. Major Gen. Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodian-Thai Border Relation Affairs Office, said the Thai ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/20/c_133424234.htm
‘One-stop office’ to help migrants at border
Following an exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers from Thailand in the past two weeks, the junta has urged Cambodia to expedite planned border offices that will facilitate legal labour migration. Responding to that request, Cambodia announced yesterday that the first “one-stop service office” would ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98one-stop-office%E2%80%99-help-migrants-border
On the World Cup clock
It’s day seven of the FIFA World Cup, and the night staff at Phnom Penh’s popular Score Sports Bar and Grill are looking a bit sleep-deprived. Score is paying its staff “very well” in extra wages during the World Cup for the long nights they ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/world-cup-clock
Workers take contract demands to ministry
About 200 garment workers marched from Phnom Penh’s Wincam garment factory to the Ministry of Labor on Thursday to press their demands for short-term contracts and better benefits. The Korean-owned factory’s 800-plus workers have been protesting since June 11 to demand that the factory change their ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-take-contract-demands-to-ministry-61956/
UN envoy meets employers over labor unrest
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi met with representatives of the country’s businesses and employers Thursday for talks that focused on the protection of workers’ rights and measures that can be taken to ensure that strained industrial relations do not once again erupt into violence. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-meets-employers-over-labor-unrest-61951/
Cambodia’s workers falling behind in skills, jobs
With regional and international competition increasing, Cambodia’s workers could be falling behind. A new World Bank report says Cambodia’s labor force lacks the skills to advance the country’s economy, even as an increasing number of young people enter the labor market. Kem Lay, a sociology researcher, ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/cambodias-workers-falling-behind-in-skills-jobs/1940536.html
Cambodian migrant workers leaving Thailand hit 225,000: official
The Thai military junta sent other 5,000 Cambodian migrant workers back to Cambodia on Thursday, bringing the total number of Cambodian laborers deported from or fled Thailand over fears of a junta’s crackdown on illegal foreign workers to 225,000, a senior official said. “As of Thursday ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/19/c_133421174.htm
At border, gov’t bill mounts
The financial burden inflicted by hundreds of thousands of returning Cambodian migrant workers has already reached $5 million in government-mobilised emergency services alone, according to official estimates. In less than two weeks, nearly 200,000 mostly undocumented Cambodian migrants have spilled through the Thai-Cambodia border, fleeing what ...
May Titthara and Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/border-gov%E2%80%99t-bill-mounts
Solo act taking its toll
It was difficult enough for Savoeurn Dimang when, until a month ago, he was one of just three teachers running the local primary school in Kors Kralor district’s Samrong Leu village. But now, with one teacher having left for South Korea and the other bowing out ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/solo-act-taking-its-toll
Better protection entertained
Workers in an industry where obnoxious, drunk customers and 12-hour shifts are common could gain legal safeguards if a subdecree brought before a Ministry of Labour committee yesterday passes into law. The set of prakases for entertainment workers – which appeared before the Labour Advisory Committee ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/better-protection-entertained
Bank pays out after factory boss ‘flees’
Workers at a garment factory that closed without warning last week received payment yesterday for nearly a month and a half of work, but some are still waiting for bonuses owed to them. More than 400 workers lined up at the Canadia Industrial Park gates, behind ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bank-pays-out-after-factory-boss-%E2%80%98flees%E2%80%99
Legal Cambodians may return, says Thailand
Thai officials said Tuesday they will take back Cambodian workers who re-enter the country legally. The statement follows a mass exodus in recent weeks of tens of thousands of Cambodians amid rumors of a crackdown on undocumented workers. Koy Kuong, a spokesman for Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry, told ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voanews.com/content/thailand-says-legal-cambodian-workers-can-return/1939085.html
IOM warns of possible 'serious humanitarian situation' on Thai border
The International Organisation for Migration says thousands of Cambodian migrant workers are continuing to pour across the Thai border into Poipet. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=NzM4MjBhNGQ2ODI
Cambodian families calling relatives to return from Thailand
Fearing a military crackdown on illegal workers, Wiang left his construction site in Bangkok without even receiving a single baht for many weeks of work. “My employer said he could pay on June 28. But we can’t wait till then,” the 32-year-old Cambodian lamented yesterday as ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=15&token=YzU1OGJiNjJjYWV
Cambodia agrees to help Thailand clarify labor policy
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed to the Cambodian Ambassador to Thailand that no harsh measures are being taken against Cambodian workers while the latter has promised to help Thailand clear up the rumor. ...
National News Bureau of Thailand
http://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNSOC5706170010018