Unions

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia on Monday urged unions to moderate their demands in current negotiations over next year’s minimum wage for the garment industry, given the low productivity of Cambodian workers and their many paid days off compared with competing countries. ...

Several of the more contentious points from Cambodia’s draft trade union law have been dropped, a pro-government union leader said yesterday, although at least one major union remains unsatisfied with the pending legislation. ...

Hoping to help fill the void in reliable data that has stymied past negotiations on the minimum wage for the country’s garment workers, an international team of labor rights groups Monday hired a local research firm to find out exactly how much the workers are ...

A group of Capitol Tours bus drivers—five of whom claim they were fired for attempting to form a union—say they were attacked Monday by a group of more than 50 tuk-tuk drivers while protesting outside the transport company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district. ...

More than 70 workers fainted over three days at a garment factory in Kompong Speu province after complaining of difficulty breathing, a unionist and employee said Monday. ...

Following a meeting at the Labor Ministry’s conflict resolution department Thursday, the Capitol Tours bus company and five of its drivers—who claim they were fired for attempting to organize a union—remained deadlocked over their reinstatement. ...

Union leaders have sent a request to the Ministry of Labor to make changes in a draft law to regulate unions, which experts say could be used to severely limit the freedom of assembly for workers. Earlier this month, some 200 union members met to ...

More than 40 drivers for the Capitol Tours bus company went on strike Wednesday, protesting outside the company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Prampi Makara district to demand the reinstatement of five employees they claim were fired for trying to unionize. ...

Chea Mony said Monday that he would fulfill a longtime ambition and join the CNRP when he relinquishes his position as head of the Free Trade Union (FTU), which was formed in 1996 by his slain brother Chea Vichea and opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...

A security guard hired by the Union Development Group, a Chinese firm building a $3.8-billion tourist mecca in a remote coastal area of Koh Kong province, was on Monday handed a one-year suspended sentence for punching a local woman in the face last year, according ...

After 11 years as president of the Free Trade Union, Chea Mony said Sunday that he would not seek re-election as head of one of the country’s largest unions, which launched Cambodia’s labor movement nearly two decades ago. ...

About 200 workers from a factory that supplies sportswear giant Puma delivered a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet on Friday calling attention to their demands that five-year employment contracts be replaced by one-year contracts, a union leader said. ...

At least 500 workers from three garment factories in Cambodia demonstrated on Tuesday outside the Labor Ministry in the capital Phnom Penh, demanding that government officials intervene in their quest for better working conditions and food and transportation subsidies. ...

After about 200 workers protested in Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a CPP lawmaker said she traveled to a Chinese-owned garment factory in Kandal province to lobby management to rehire seven workers, including six who say they were fired earlier this month for taking part ...

Members of 30 independent and government-leaning labour unions and labour advocacy groups met yesterday to discuss aspects of a draft trade union law they want altered, and strategies for accomplishing the changes. ...

As Free Trade Union officials were putting together a list of demands for striking workers at a factory in Kompong Speu province on Tuesday, the union’s president, Chea Mony, was in Kampot province inspecting a plot of land for a Chinese firm looking to set ...

Nine union officials arrested during a protest outside an electronics factory in Takeo province Tuesday afternoon were released that night after being “educated” and agreeing to obey the law, police said. ...

Police in Takeo province on Tuesday arrested nine union officials during a protest outside an electronics factory where workers have been striking for almost three weeks, demanding wages equal to their peers in the garment sector. ...

The government’s announcement of a new commission to investigate the decade-old murders of members of the Free Trade Union has been welcomed by some and greeted with skepticism by others. On Saturday two UN agencies – the International Labor Organization and the Office of the High ...

The government has formed a special inter-ministerial commission to investigate the murders of three union leaders, including the slaying of former Free Trade Union (FTU) president Chea Vichea, whose brother and successor was yesterday among voices cynical of the move. The directive, signed by Prime Minister ...

A group of nine trade unions representing some of the country’s 700,000 garment workers agreed on Monday to push for a $177 monthly minimum wage for the sector during fast-approaching negotiations, matching the figure they unsuccessfully lobbied for last year. ...

Ministry of Labour officials said this week that a controversial draft trade union law is “90 per cent” complete and they are now waiting for inter-ministerial review of the language before they submit it for approval. ...

Labor leaders say they are concerned that a number of unions would be shuttered if a new law to govern them is passed. Labor Minister Ith Samheng said the law will not “put pressure” on unions. “We take unions and other vocational organizations as our ...

Cambodia’s garment workers will renew their campaign for a monthly wage of $177 next month, when talks start for a new minimum wage, labor leaders said yesterday.  ...