Labor

H&M Hennes & Mauritz’s head of sustainability Helena Helmersson was in Cambodia last week to meet with ILO/Better Works Cambodia on how to improve working conditions in export garment factories. Helmersson said in a blog post that the lack of dialogue between workers and factory management ...

The Cambodian government has developed six prakases related to a controversial sub-decree that regulates the recruitment of migrant workers, but it cannot yet release the details, a Labor Ministry official said yesterday. On the sidelines of an ASEAN meeting in Siem Reap aimed at curtailing migrant worker abuses, Seng Sakada, ...

Tens of thousands of garment workers will enjoy an early start to the Pchum Ben holiday today as they trek back to their homeland. Their excitement, however, is not shared by their bosses, who will be left to rue a week-long halt in production. Enterprise and establishment ...

Villagers on Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, who depend on fishing for subsistence, say their livelihoods are threatened by illegal commercial fishing, which continues after a government ban. And they say authorities in charge of enforcing the ban are being bribed to look the other ...

The Ministry of Labor on Sunday launched an educational campaign aimed at preventing further mass faintings in garment factories, a ministry official said yesterday. Meng Hong, director of the ministry’s inspection and legal affairs department, said that the campaign would target more than 30,000 garment workers ...

Education garment workers and their bosses on how to avoiding fainting is the latest strategy the Ministry of Labor is using to address a problem that has plagued the industry in the past two years, a ministry official said yesterday. Labor Ministry Secretary of State Oum Mean said he ...

Garment factory workers who set tyres ablaze during a strike on Friday claimed yesterday they were burned when police pushed them into their own fire. Snguon Vannary was one of several workers who said his feet had been burned when police broke up the strike at ...

Officials from the government  U.N. and human rights groups on Friday put forward amendments to draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is designed to impose safeguards for Cambodians to travel to work as maids in Malaysia. While the original draft by the Malaysian government sets out the responsibility of ...

Deputy Prime Minister Sok An yesterday approved the creation of a joint commission which will undertake the role of evicting hundreds of families living near the Phnom Penh International Airport before the Asean and East Asia summits commence next month. Mr. Sath [Choam Chao commune ...

As buyers for international clothing brands yesterday praised the renewal of an agreement aimed at reducing strikes in the garment sector, labor unions and factory owners said that only proper implementation would determine the agreement’s effectiveness. Modeled after an earlier pact from 2010 to prevent work ...

Jobs are a cornerstone of development in developing countries, reducing poverty, making cities work and providing youth with alternatives to violence, according to a new World Bank report. Jobs are crucial for achieving economic and social development, the World Development Report 2013 said. According to ...

The number of strikes in Cambodia’s garment industry could be set to dip and workers could be on their way to free lunches after both sides of the industry signed a two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. The MoU – inked by the Garment Manufacturers Association (GMAC) in ...

The salary for Cambodian civil servants has seen an average increase of 540 per cent compared to salaries in 2001, according to a report from the national news agency Agence Kampuchea Presse last Thursday.   Yim Serey Vathanak, national project coordinator on trade unions for social ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court handed down a 20-year jail sentence to independent radio station owner Mam Sonando yesterday for his role in fomenting an alleged secessionist movement in a decision drawing condemnation from human rights groups and some of Cambodia’s main foreign donors. The court ...

When 29-year-old store manager Srey Mom sent her mother in Takeo province some money to pay young people to help with the rice planting, her mother told her it was no use – the young people had abandoned the village to seek their fortunes in ...

The Kandal Provincial Court yesterday questioned labor leader Rong Chhun over allegations he incited garment factory workers to stage an illegal strike, a court official said. A director at the Tai Yang garment factory in Ang Snuol district- which supplies apparel to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, ...

The president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions Rong Chhun appeared in Kandal Provincial Court for nearly three hours yesterday, fielding questions stemming from accusations of incitement and defamation, the union boss said. According to Chhun, his appearance was related to a complaint alleging that he had incited ...

Unable to effectively police the Cardamoms alone, the Cambodian government partners itself with several international NGOs. The forests directly north of Highway 48 arc patrolled with the help of Wildlife Alliance. Beginning in 2002 with two ranger stations, Wildlife Alliance now operates six outposts in the ...

Negotiations between the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and unions over a landmark agreement aimed at reducing strike action will be held on October 3, representatives said yesterday. The original agreement on improving industrial relations in the garment sector was signed in October 2010 by ...

The governemnt yesterday denied a recent news report that discussions were under way to have Cambodian domestic workers sent to Singapore. An Bunhak, chairman of the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies (ACRA), said he did not know of any immediate plans to send maids to ...

Less than a week after the arrest of alleged beauty parlour madam Chan Sreynuch, military police say they are taking a closer look at a number of hair salons and beauty shops in Phnom Penh suspected of being involved in human trafficking and prostitution. According to ...

With a court date hanging over his head for his involvement in the Tai Yang factories strike in Kandal province, Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun yesterday intervened in another garment dispute, this time in Kampong Speu province. About 1,000 workers entered day five of ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has announced that Cambodia’s total land mass is some 300 square kilometers more than historically stated and wants to put the number in the constitution. His announcement is thought to be a response to political opponents and critics who accuse ...

The foreign commercial arbitration case between South Korean Kookmin Bank and World City Asset Management and World City, two real-estate development firms, has been received by the Cambodian Court of Appeals. World City Asset Management received a loan from Kookmin bank in Korea in 2007 to ...