Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training

Annual reports from two ministries released on Monday appear to show significantly different numbers of factories, enterprises and garment factory workers in Cambodia last year, and officials at the two ministries contacted yesterday did not explain the contradictory data. ...

The labour minister said on Monday that Cambodia’s garment sector grew by 4 percent last year to reach $7.6 billion, which would mark a slowdown in the growth rate compared to previous years. ...

Strikes in Cambodia plummeted by more than half last year, according to the Ministry of Labour’s annual report – a statistic lauded by the government as evidence that worker conditions had improved but rejected by labour advocates as a sign that dissent was being suppressed. ...

About 100,000 foreigners working without permits will be fined after Khmer New Year and potentially face jail time and deportation if they fail to get paperwork or pay their fines, the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour announced yesterday. ...

The Labour Ministry has created a technical working group to study and investigate what causes fainting in an attempt to reduce episodes of fainting at factories nationwide. Labour Minister Ith Samheng, who is also chairman of the National Committee for Health and Work Safety, said the ...

The government will begin to pay out of pocket for severance wages for labourers at abruptly shuttered factories whose owners have fled, effectively enacting a pro-worker policy without further burdening private businesses – albeit at the risk of discouraging good corporate citizenship, experts say. ...

The Ministry of Labour and United Nations yesterday pledged to continue working on a project that is aiding young women and men in their search for decent and productive employment opportunities. ...

The Labour Ministry’s National Committee for Health and Work Safety held its first meeting yesterday pledging to investigate the reasons for faintings amongst factory workers. ...

Officials from the Ministry of Labour met with former workers from three garment factories in the capital’s Por Senchey district this morning after the owner absconded without warning last week, leaving 2,000 workers without their severance or salary for the month of January. ...

The Labour Minister led a delegation to visit Malaysia last week to discuss sending migrant labourers and maids there with the country’s Minister of Human Resources. The Ministry of Labour issued a statement on Friday saying that Labour Minister Ith Samheng met with Human Resources Minister ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday that the country does not need a labour court to solve disputes because the current trilateral mechanism in place is sufficient. Speaking to garment factory workers in Phnom Penh, Mr Hun Sen explained that the current mechanism, which brings employer ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng said yesterday that the government will establish an inter-ministerial working group in Banteay Meanchey province to resolve issues for illegal migrant workers deported from Thailand. ...

The National Social Security Fund of the Ministry of Labour said more than 1,600 workers fainted in 22 factories in 2017, an increase of more than 400 from the previous year. According to a Facebook post that published the conclusion of the 2017 annual results and ...

A tripartite group consisting of employers, unions and the government finished discussing the draft law on minimum wage yesterday. Labour Minister Ith Samheng said yesterday’s talks were the last public workshop to discuss the draft law on minimum wage after two workshops had already taken place. ...

Cambodian workers may soon be headed to Lebanon, the latest country that the Ministry of Labour is targeting as a destination for thousands of underemployed Cambodians looking for work amid stagnant job opportunities at home. ...

The Ministry of Labour hopes to use a new $20 million loan from Saudi Arabia to develop the country’s workforce. Yousef Ibrahim Al-Bassam, vice president and managing director of the Saudi Fund for Development, led a delegation to Phnom Penh yesterday to discuss plans for ...

A Better Factories Cambodia report shows little improvement in the continued use of short-term contracts and safety and health conditions for workers at surveyed factories, with total compliance of all exporting factories still stuck at less than 50 percent. The International Labour Organisation’s compliance program conducts ...

Cambodia will send a group of maids to work in Malaysia in early June after the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015.Labour Minister Ith Samheng said he had met with Malaysian Human Resources Minister Dato’ Sri Richard Riot AnakJaem three times already ...

The Labour Ministry is expecting American buyers to increase their orders after a memorandum of understanding between the ministry and the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity on “Cooperation in the Field of Labour” was signed. ...

The Labour Ministry is planning to launch a national policy to cut the number of traffic accidents involving garment workers being driven to and from factories. The policy will encourage employers and drivers to prioritise road safety. Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday addressed a workshop on the ...

The owner of Gawon Apparel factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao city has sued the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union for continuing its protest and has requested Labour Ministry intervention. ...

Both unionists and private sector representatives are unhappy with draft amendments to Cambodia’s Labour Law, which would overhaul the regulations surrounding worker contracts and guaranteed employee protections. ...

More than 500 workers from the Benoh Apparel factory in Meanchey district’s Stung Meanchey commune yesterday agreed to sell the remaining machines in the factory to cover their lost pay after the owner went bankrupt and fled the country. ...

The interior and labour ministries have launched three new offices to speed up the process of providing passports and labourer cards to migrants hoping to work abroad. ...