Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training
Government announces start of garment sector wage talks
The Labor Ministry on Friday announced that formal negotiations to set a new minimum wage for the country’s all-important garment sector—now at $128 a month—will begin in July, reviving the same schedule for talks it used with unions and employers for the first time last ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-announces-start-of-garment-sector-wage-talks-85550/
New draft of trade Union Law adds guilt by association
An updated version of the draft Trade Union Law gives the Labor Ministry the power to suspend unions that “cooperate” or hold joint activities with groups the government deems to have caused economic sabotage or “damaged” the national interest, according to a copy of the ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-draft-of-trade-union-law-ad
Rights workers want transparency in Qatar labor recruitment
Human rights activists are calling for more transparency in any potential agreement to send Cambodian workers to Qatar. ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://bit.ly/1HLfbQr
Cambodia has 1,087 garment, shoe factories with 700,000 workers: minister
Cambodian Labor Minister Ith Samheng said on Sunday that the country’s garment and footwear industries, the kingdom’s largest foreign currency earner, are comprised of 1,087 factories with 700,000 direct jobs. ...
Global Post News Staff
http://bit.ly/1D4gXdw
Vietnam, Cambodia trade unions deepen ties
A delegation from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) met with Cambodia’s trade unions this week to strengthen ties, Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. ...
Bernama News Staff
http://bit.ly/1FAtAAi
Officials work to evacuate Cham students from Yemen
As Yemen slides further into violence and chaos, officials are attempting to extricate eight Cambodian students studying there and send them back home, Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Sunday. ...
Ouch Sony
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-work-to-evacuate-cham-students-from-yemen-81431/
Foreigners reminded to get their work permits
The head of the Interior Ministry’s general department of immigration issued a statement on Wednesday reminding foreigners working in Cambodia that they are required to hold a work permit—and will face fines if they do not. ...
Chris Mueller
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/foreigners-reminded-to-get-their-work-permits-81328/
Maid agencies want deal with Cambodia approved
Recruitment agencies are pressing for an MoU on Cambodian domestic maids to be approved, saying it had been stuck at the Malaysian side for several months. They said the Cambodian government was ready to lift the ban imposed in 2011, but lamented that Malaysian authorities were ...
P. Aruna
http://bit.ly/1OXuegx
Cambodia rebukes "labor abuse" report
Cambodia has rejected a U.S.- based Human Rights Watch’s “labor abuse” report, saying the report is groundless, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Labor late on Friday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/cambodia-rebukes-%22labor-abuse%22-report-8301
Environment officials to monitor conditions
The Ministry of Environment is set to join the Ministry of Labour in the monitoring of garment factory workplaces, after creating a working group that will probe the environmental safety of all plants in Cambodia. At a press conference at the ministry yesterday, Minister of Environment ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/environment-officials-monitor-conditions
High number of migrant workers create political, economic challenges
There are now more than 1 million estimated Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand. This could be a threat to Cambodia’s economy and politics in the future, an analyst says. ...
Men Kimseng
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/high-number-of-migrant-workers-create-political-economic-challenges/2667562.html
PM takes to stump on legal limit to overtime
Prime Minister Hun Sen broached the long-running issue of excessive overtime worked by garment factory employees in a speech yesterday, in what at least one analyst saw as a possible play for garment worker support. During his commencement speech at the National University of Management, the ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/pm-takes-stump-legal-limit-overtime
Senior garment workers also want salary raise
Thousands of garment workers at one Phnom Penh factory, and about 100 more at another, protested Thursday over the new minimum wage set for the garment sector late last year, upset that those already earning higher salaries were overlooked. ...
Mech Dara and Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/senior-garment-workers-also-want-salary-raise-78391/
Three more women faint as factory reopens
The Labor Ministry official in charge of garment factory faintings declared Wednesday’s reopening of a Svay Rieng province factory—where 100 workers fainted in the past week due to chemical fumes—a relative success, with only three more women collapsing while working. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/three-more-women-faint-as-factory-reopens-78276/
Labour Ministry vows to investigate recruiter
Responding to parliament’s order to investigate allegations against a recruitment agency with a record of mistreating its workers, the Ministry of Labour dispatched a team today to meet with a group of defrauded labourers. ...
Pech Sotheary and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/labour-ministry-vows-investigate-recruiter
Bavet factory ordered to close after mass faintings
The Svay Rieng provincial labor department on Monday ordered a Taiwanese-owned garment factory to temporarily close and improve its ventilation after more than 100 workers collapsed in two separate mass faintings in recent days. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bavet-factory-ordered-to-close-after-mass-faintings-78102/
Labor Minister warns officials over foreign work permits
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Thursday warned officials processing work permits for foreign workers to adhere strictly to all the relevant rules and regulations or risk an unwanted visit from the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). The government has recently started enforcing a longstanding but largely ignored ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-warns-officials-over-foreign-work-permits-77922/
Labor minister says Unions have no reason to complain
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Wednesday denied recent claims from a group of disgruntled unions that the government was making it nearly impossible to register branches at garment factories, and announced a new push to bring noncompliant factories in line with Cambodia’s labor laws. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-says-unions-have-no-reason-to-complain-77843/
Commute deadly: gov’t
Garment workers continue to die in traffic accidents on their way to and from the factory, a new report highlighting the deadly commute in Cambodia’s largest industry shows. In the report, titled The Dangerous Journey of Garment Workers in 2014, the Ministry of Labour’s National Social ...
Wage wait: Unionists not impressed with promise
Labor leaders sniffed at the government’s stated commitment yesterday to hike the wage in the garment industry to $160 – by 2018. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-wait-unionists-not-impressed-promise
Unions warn of strikes over gov’t rejection of new branch
A group of eight trade unions Thursday said the government has turned down every one of their applications to form local branches at the country’s garment factories since early last year and threatened mass strikes if the rejections continue. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-warn-of-strikes-over-govt-rejection-of-new-branches-77031/
Ministry outlines procedures for businesses hiring foreigners
The Labor Ministry released a statement Monday with a list of procedures all businesses in Cambodia that hire foreign workers must follow in order to comply with the country’s long-standing Labor Law. According to Monday’s statement, which was signed by Labor Minister Ith Sam ...
Gov’t launches three-year roadmap on migrant labor policy
The Labor Ministry on Thursday launched a new three-year policy for improving the lot of Cambodia’s more than 700,000 migrant workers that includes plans to step up monitoring of the country’s often-abusive recruitment agencies and add labor attachés to more embassies. Nilim Baruah, a senior ...
Zsombor Peter and Ouch Sony
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-launches-three-year-roadmap-on-migrant-labor-policy-74515/
Tally of goods linked to child labour grows
Four more goods made in Cambodia have been linked to exploitative child labour, adding to a mounting list of items the United States considers to be produced in violation of international rights laws. The mounting number of Cambodian goods found to use child labour runs ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/tally-goods-linked-child-labour-grows