Manufacturing
Garments and textiles
Factories ask gov’t to punish strike leaders
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) over the weekend released a statement condemning an ongoing strike at a Kompong Chhnang garment factory and urging authorities to “punish the perpetrators.” About 3,000 employees of the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory have been on strike since August ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-ask-govt-to-punish-strike-leaders-67103/
‘Solvable problems’ focus of fainting review
Amid reports of increased mass-fainting incidents in Cambodia’s garment sector, workers, employers and government officials gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday for a roundtable discussion on the issue. The conference, which was organised by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media, identified issues such as workday lengths and ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98solvable-problems%E2%80%99-focus-fainting-review
New fines for faintings
The minister of labour has sent a stern warning to garment factories to take measures to end mass faintings or face the consequences. Speaking after a safety workshop yesterday, Ith Sam Heng said the government will get tougher on factories, fining those that didn’t provide safe ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-fines-faintings
Striking factory workers thwart police arrests
Police in Kompong Chhnang province on Thursday were prevented from arresting workers and union officials outside a Samakki Meanchey district garment factory by a mob of irate protesters who pulled two of their colleagues out of a police car to thwart their arrests. About 3,000 employees ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/striking-factory-workers-thwart-police-arrests-66997/
More Than 1,000 Faintings Reported in Cambodian Factories This Year
The faintings between January and August were much higher than the 802 reported in the whole of last year, while only one factory worker died in the workplace in 2013, the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) said in a ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/faintings-08212014140815.html
Garment workers at two factories go on strike for more pay
About 3,000 garment workers went on strike in Kompong Chhnang province for a second day Tuesday, accusing their factory of withholding some of their monthly bonuses. Employees from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory blocked National Road 5 for more than four hours Tuesday, claiming that ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-at-two-factories-go-on-strike-for-more-pay-66897/
Cambodia garment sector small fry for suppliers
In Cambodia, where the garment sector accounts for 80 percent of exports, hundreds of thousands of people depend on their slice of the $5 billion industry to survive. But for suppliers currently exhibiting their wares at a trade show this weekend on Phnom Penh’s Koh Pich ...
Holly Robertson and Kang Sothear
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/cambodia-garment-sector-small-fry-for-suppliers-66677/
Mass faintings occur at 6 garment factories in Cambodia
At least 127 Cambodian garment workers at six different factories got fainted on Friday due to poor health, a local police chief confirmed. Yim Socheat, police chief of Phnom Penh’s Dangkor district, where the incidents occurred, said the victims had been sent to hospitals soon after ...
Shanghai Daily News Staff
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua.aspx?id=235570
Factory strikes end after pay disputes solved
About 3,000 garment workers in Kompong Chhnang province agreed to end their protest and return to work Wednesday after confusion over their monthly salaries was cleared away. Workers from the Chinese-owned Jiun Ye Garment factory in Samakki Meanchey district went on strike Monday after picking up ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-strikes-end-after-pay-disputes-solved-66365/
Wrangling over wage may spur new unrest
Unions representing garment workers have pledged to reignite protests if the minimum wage for the industry is raised to only $115 next year, a sum they say was offered by the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia during a meeting on Friday. The Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wrangling-over-wage-may-spur-new-unrest
Unions, factories set positions on minimum wage raise
Unions and factories remained at odds over where to peg next year’s minimum wage for the garment sector after a meeting between representatives for both sides on Friday, though they agreed to resume the talks later in the month. Earlier this year, the Labor Advisory Committee, ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-factories-set-positions-on-minimum-wage-raise-66112/
Workers end protest after taking sewing machines
About 200 employees of a Phnom Penh garment factory agreed to go back to work after reaching a deal with the factory Sunday, a day after they walked off the job—with some sewing machines in hand—because the owners could not pay them on time. ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-end-protest-after-taking-sewing-machines-66118/
Representatives to meet over factory fire
Representatives for the employees and owners of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire last month will meet at the Ministry of Labor today to try and hammer out a pay package for the workers, though a factory official said they would not ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/representatives-to-meet-over-factory-fire-65988/
Strike ends as sacked workers take cash
Seven union leaders protesting against being sacked from the Vantage River Textile factory in Preah Sihanouk province each agreed yesterday to accept $300 compensation. Worker representative and sacked employee Keo Srey Pich, 22, said three hours of negotiations between the union, workers and the company, in ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-ends-sacked-workers-take-cash
Benefits there for the taking
Thailand will lose its beneficial tax treatment on exports to the European Union next year, and Cambodia’s manufacturing sector could be set to capitalise. Following three consecutive years of upper-middle income status as defined by the World Bank, Thailand will on January 1 lose its Generalised ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/benefits-there-taking
Unions up wage demands
Deposite not coming close to achieving their goal of a $160 monthly minimum garment wage, unions announced yesterday that they will raise their demands to $177 for 2015. Ken Chhenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia (NIFTUC), said about 10 union ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-wage-demands
UK urged to help improve Cambodia’s factories
A group of unions in the U.K. is urging its government to make sure British brands sourcing clothes from Cambodian factories respect their workers’ rights, and to ask the European Union to negotiate a deal with the Cambodian government to improve factory conditions. In a July ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-urged-to-help-improve-cambodias-factories-65704/
Dismissed protests in S'ville over sacked staff
Dozens of workers in Preah Sihanouk province marched on the local labour department yesterday after three days of protests against the sacking of seven employees. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://phnompenhpost.com
Help Cambodia's garment workers, unions urge Business Secretary
The Business Secretary, Vince Cable, must force British clothing companies to investigate whether garments sourced from Cambodia are made at factories with fair labour practices, the unions have warned. Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, has written to Mr Cable warning that ...
Staff of suspended factory demand wages
About 70 workers from the Xing Chang Sin factory marched to the Ministry of Labor on Friday to demand intervention after the factory allegedly failed to pay wages for the past two months. Vong Sovann, deputy director general at the Labor Ministry’s general department of ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/staff-of-suspended-factory-demand-wages-65571/
Workers protest for speedy pay after fire destroys factory
The roughly 900 employees of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire that killed a Chinese supervisor on Monday protested in front of their old workplace on Thursday to demand a quick payout of their final paychecks and severance. The Chinese-owned Cheng Sheng Garment ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-protest-for-speedy-pay-after-fire-destroys-factory-65508/
Workers ill after fainting at factory
A lingering odour in a Sixplus Industry garment factory is aggravating the already-fragile health of its workers, 100 of whom fainted last weekend, and has forced the factory to send many of them back to health centres. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-ill-after-fainting-factory
Factory ends strike after compromise
Workers at a Taiwanese-owned sandal factory in Kompong Cham province on strike since last week over an eight-point list of demands agreed to go back to work Tuesday after reaching a deal with management that included a monthly lunch stipend. A few hundred of the Carlington ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/kompong-cham-factory-ends-strike-after-compromise-65261/
Fire-ravaged factory’s former owner to give workers loans
The former owner of a Phnom Penh garment factory gutted by a fire on Monday has agreed to provide loans to about 900 out-of-work employees until the current owner decides whether and how to pay them due wages and severance. Authorities, meanwhile, said they still did ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fire-ravaged-factorys-former-owner-to-give-workers-loans-65259/