Labor
Factory inspection turns up unauthorised floor
Inspectors from the ministry in charge of construction who were called to investigate a “shaking” garment factory last Tuesday discovered that an entire extra storey had been built without permission or oversight from authorities, officials said yesterday. As workers returned to the Siu Quinh Garment factory ...
Mom Kunthear and Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-inspection-turns-unauthorised-floor
No Bail for Teens Arrested After Factory Clashes
Two teenagers charged with intentional acts of violence, damage to public property and insulting public officials in clashes with police during a demonstration by SL Garment Factory workers last month were denied bail Monday. The suspects, 14-year-old Meas Non and 17-year-old Vanny Vanan, were charged by ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/no-bail-for-teens-arrested-after-factory-clashes-48448/
Majority of workers denied annual leave
Only about 10 per cent of Cambodia’s workforce is being granted paid annual leave, a report released last week says. Under the 1997 Labour Law, workers who work a standard 48-hour week are entitled to 18 days of paid annual leave, in addition to one day ...
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/majority-workers-denied-annual-leave
FBI Holds Investigation Talk for Cambodian Youth
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation on Thursday gave a talk to some 200 Cambodian youths in Phnom Penh, describing criminal investigation, especially in human trafficking and child prostitution. Various youth from across nine provinces attended the discussion, where they learned how they can participate in ...
Khoun Theara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/fbi-holds-investigation-talk-for-cambodian-youth/1800147.html
Poor Education Could Cripple Business Growth
Low-quality education is jeopardizing business growth in Cambodia, and local graduates will not be employable in skilled jobs if the government does not quickly implement educational reforms, business executives warned Thursday at the Cambodian Market Intel 2013 seminar in Phnom Penh. During an hourlong panel discussion ...
Joshua Wilwohl
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/phnom-penh-listed-as-nsa-collection-point-48188/
Report Says More Than 10 Percent of Children Are ‘Laborers’
More than 10 percent of children in the country aged between 5 and 17 work as laborers, with more than 5 percent engaged in “hazardous labor,” a situation that must be addressed by the government, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a report released ...
Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/report-says-more-than-10-percent-of-children-are-laborers-48198/
ILO: women still lag behind in education
Despite making some gains, Cambodian women continue to fall well short of their male counterparts when it comes to education and position in the labour market, a study released yesterday by the International Labor Organization reports. Men account for just five per cent more of Cambodia’s ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ilo-women-still-lag-behind-education
SL to reinstate fired unionists
The chief executive of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) yesterday said the factory has agreed to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, a sticking point which could end a strike that has lasted more than three months. Hours after the Ministry of Labour announced the garment ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sl-reinstate-fired-unionists
Cambodia's 2012 unemployment rate stands at 2.7 pct: survey
Unemployment rate in Cambodia stood at 2.7 percent in equivalent to 202,300 persons aged 15 or older in 2012, according to the first-ever Cambodia Labor Force Survey Report released on Thursday. Conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and the International Labor Organization (ILO), the survey ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/131128/cambodias-2012-unemployment-rate-stands-at-27-pct-survey
Cambodia to set 2014 wage for garment workers next month
The Ministry of Labour, Government of Cambodia, would set the 2014 minimum wage for garment workers next month, reports The Phnom Penh Post. A working group consisting of representatives of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association in Cambodia (GMAC), workers’ representatives and factory managers met officials at ...
Fibers2fashion News Staff
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=156451
No consensus on next move in SL drama
After the management of an embattled garment factory this week refused to follow a government order to reinstate 19 dismissed union leaders and activists, unionists and observers are at a divergence of opinion over how the state should respond. “It’s fairly unprecedented,” Dave Welsh, country director ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-consensus-next-move-sl-drama
Labor Ministry Says Brands Hold Key to Wages
The minimum wage for garment factory workers can only be raised if international clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia pay more for their products, a Ministry of Labor official said Tuesday. Khieu Savuth, chief of the Ministry of Labor’s labor conflict commission, laid down the challenge a ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/labor-ministry-says-brands-hold-key-to-wages-47966/
Cambodian Unions Call for Doubling of Minimum Wage for Factory Workers
Four trade unions on Tuesday demanded that Cambodia’s garment and footwear manufacturers raise the minimum wage of their workers and provide them with additional benefits, threatening a nationwide strike and demonstrations if they do not comply. In a joint letter to the Van Sou Ieng, president ...
Radio free Asia
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/wages-11262013151923.html
Factory rejects order to rehire 19 workers
Flouting a government order, representatives of SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd yesterday refused to rehire 19 union representatives and activists during a meeting with the Ministry of Labour. Rehiring the 19 has been the key sticking point in ending the three-month-old strike, which erupted into violence ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-rejects-order-rehire-19-workers
Food-price hike hits workers
The price of food spiked this month, and Cambodia’s low-paid garment workers are feeling the effects. Meat, vegetables, toothbrushes, beauty accessories and even the plastic bags they get packed in have all seen a sharp bump up in price this month, some items by as much ...
Daniel de Carteret and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/food-price-hike-hits-workers
Factory ordered to clean act
The Ministry of Labour has ordered management at a Kandal province garment factory to clean their workroom and limit employees’ overtime hours, in response to over 100 workers fainting over two days. During a visit to King First Industrial Co, Ltd’s Kandal location yesterday, Seng Sakada, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-ordered-clean-act
H&M pledges living wage for textile workers in Bangladesh and Cambodia
H&M has pledged to pay a living wage to 850,000 textile workers after expressing frustration over a lack of action by governments to address working conditions in Asian factories in the wake of the Rana Plaza disaster. The world’s second-biggest clothing retailer said it would support ...
Sean Farrell
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/nov/25/h-m-living-wage-textile-workers-bangladesh-cambodia
Mass fainting at Kandal factory
About 50 garment workers fainted yesterday at the King First Industrial factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district, union representatives said. Khouth Touch, the Free Trade Union president at the factory, said a number of workers had experienced stomach aches and diarrhoea that morning. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/mass-fainting-kandal-factory
Meas Sotha—The Man at the Center of the SL Factory Strike
Meas Sotha is not leaving the SL Garment Factory. As tensions between management and workers have intensified over the past five months, Mr. Sotha and his role at the strike-plagued factory have moved center stage. Workers claim that since Mr. Sotha took over from a previous SL ...
Colin Meyn and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/meas-sotha-the-man-at-the-center-of-the-sl-factory-strike-47684/
SL Workers Demand Representatives Reinstated
About 200 workers protested outside SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district Wednesday demanding that managers reinstate 19 union representatives before a 15-day deadline set by the government elapses. The Council of Ministers has ordered the factory to rehire the fired unionists or face punitive ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sl-workers-demand-representatives-reinstated-47539/
Strike reaches City Hall
More than 100 workers from the Alim garment factory in Phnom Penh marched on City Hall yesterday, demanding the dismissal of four managers. Yam Thaisan, a legal officer from a union representing the workers at the Por Sen Chey district factory, said strikers had called on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-reaches-city-hall
Despite Denials, Levi’s Still Producing at SL Garment Factory
U.S. denim giant Levi Strauss continued to deny this week that its products are linked to the strife-torn SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh, despite new photographs showing Levi’s trademark jeans stacked on benches at the plant in Meanchey district. The Singaporean-owned factory, which also produces ...
Dene-Hern Chen and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/despite-denials-levis-still-producing-at-sl-garment-factory-47389/
One Week on, Shooting Investigation Has Yielded Nothing
One week after police opened fire on civilians during clashes that broke out during an SL Garment Factory protest, killing bystander Eng Sokhom and injuring nine others, arrests have yet to be made on the back of an investigation that victims said appears to be ...
Mech Dara and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one-week-on-shooting-investigation-has-yielded-nothing-47387/
Factory Ordered To Hire Back Union Leaders After Violent Protest
The government has ordered the SL Garment factory to rehire 19 worker representatives, following a brutal crackdown on demonstrators outside the home of Prime Minister Hun Sen last week. In a letter to the company, Khun Chinken, undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Labor, said ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/factory-ordered-to-hire-back-union-leaders-after-violent-protest/1792644.html