Ministries and other national bodies
Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training
Big queues for $4 passport
A sub-decree aimed at stemming the massive influx of mostly undocumented Cambodian migrant workers returning from Thailand with a drastically reduced passport fee already appears to be generating an overwhelming response. Yesterday, an estimated 200 workers lined up outside the Battambang provincial passport office to get ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-queues-4-passport
Thailand says border trade rising between Surin and Oddar Meanchey
Border trade between Surin province in Thailand and Oddar Meanchey province in Cambodia is rising following military measures, the National News Bureau of Thailand said Sunday. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MDY1YTgxYjYzOTh
Arbitration’s cost and value
The Arbitration Council Foundation, credited with helping resolve about 1,700 industrial disputes, has reached verbal agreement with a Swedish aid agency to receive funding until the end of 2016, a spokesman said yesterday. But members of the labour-dispute resolution body desire a more permanent solution that ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/arbitration%E2%80%99s-cost-and-value
Gov’t begins effort to send workers back to Thailand
With Thailand and Cambodia both feeling the pinch from the sudden exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers out of Thailand, the two countries are now working together to try and get them back to their old jobs legally, as fast as possible. Some 225,000 Cambodians, ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-begins-effort-to-send-workers-back-to-thailand-62083/
Ministry of Labor knights Australian industrial commissioner
The Arbitration Council says the Ministry of Labor has knighted an Australian industrial commissioner for his long period of work as an honorary advisor to the council. In a statement posted on its website Friday, the council said Labour and Vocational Training Minister Ith Samheng awarded ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=OTZiMjJhNTM1NzQ
Nearly all illegal Cambodian migrants working in Thailand return home: labor minister
Cambodian Minister of Labor Ith Samheng said Friday that nearly all illegal Cambodian migrant laborers working in Thailand have returned home in fears of a junta’s crackdown on illegal foreign workers. Major Gen. Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodian-Thai Border Relation Affairs Office, said the Thai ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/20/c_133424234.htm
‘One-stop office’ to help migrants at border
Following an exodus of more than 200,000 Cambodian workers from Thailand in the past two weeks, the junta has urged Cambodia to expedite planned border offices that will facilitate legal labour migration. Responding to that request, Cambodia announced yesterday that the first “one-stop service office” would ...
Chhay Channyda and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98one-stop-office%E2%80%99-help-migrants-border
Workers take contract demands to ministry
About 200 garment workers marched from Phnom Penh’s Wincam garment factory to the Ministry of Labor on Thursday to press their demands for short-term contracts and better benefits. The Korean-owned factory’s 800-plus workers have been protesting since June 11 to demand that the factory change their ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-take-contract-demands-to-ministry-61956/
UN envoy meets employers over labor unrest
U.N. human rights envoy Surya Subedi met with representatives of the country’s businesses and employers Thursday for talks that focused on the protection of workers’ rights and measures that can be taken to ensure that strained industrial relations do not once again erupt into violence. In ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-envoy-meets-employers-over-labor-unrest-61951/
Better protection entertained
Workers in an industry where obnoxious, drunk customers and 12-hour shifts are common could gain legal safeguards if a subdecree brought before a Ministry of Labour committee yesterday passes into law. The set of prakases for entertainment workers – which appeared before the Labour Advisory Committee ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/better-protection-entertained
Bank pays out after factory boss ‘flees’
Workers at a garment factory that closed without warning last week received payment yesterday for nearly a month and a half of work, but some are still waiting for bonuses owed to them. More than 400 workers lined up at the Canadia Industrial Park gates, behind ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/bank-pays-out-after-factory-boss-%E2%80%98flees%E2%80%99
Border chaos claims 2 more
A second deadly car accident in as many days has claimed the lives of more Cambodian migrant workers fleeing Thailand in the wake of last month’s military takeover. At least two undocumented Cambodian workers were killed while driving through Thailand’s Chonburi province to get to the ...
Laignee Barron and May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/border-chaos-claims-2-more
Wage group agrees on January 1 raises
The group in charge of determining the national minimum wage for the garment sector yesterday agreed to increase salaries annually on January 1, determined by discussions that are to take place in the final quarter of each preceding year, officials said. The agreement was signed during ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-group-agrees-january-1-raises
Over 200,000 Cambodian migrants leave Thailand as junta rounds up illegal foreign workers
More than 200,000 Cambodian migrant workers have been either deported from or fled Thailand since early this month in the wake of a junta-led clampdown on illegal migrant laborers, Major General Pich Vanna, chief of Cambodia-Thailand Border Relation Affairs Office, said Monday. “As of Monday evening, ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/16/c_133411841.htm
Domestic worker day to see maids rally for rights
About 100 domestic workers planned to gather today in front of the Ministry of Labour to mark International Domestic Workers Day by calling on the government to do more to ensure their rights. Vun Samphors, president of the Cambodian Domestic Workers Network (CDWN), told the Postthat participants ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/domestic-worker-day-see-maids-rally-rights
135,000 Cambodian migrants flee Thailand as junta targets illegal foreign workers
An estimated 135,000 Cambodian migrant workers have been deported from or fled Thailand since early this month after the Thailand’s new military government rounded up illegal migrant laborers, a senior official said Sunday. ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-06/15/c_133409329.htm
H&M, ILO Form New Industrial Relations Initiative
In an effort to bring stability back to the country’s embattled but crucial garment industry, the Ministry of Labor has joined forces with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Swedish clothing giant H&M in a campaign for unions and factories to sign direct agreements to ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hm-ilo-form-new-industrial-relations-initiative-61424/
Confidence for plan low
Union officials and the garment sector’s factory association said yesterday they supported a new program meant to enhance relations between employers and employees, but remained sceptical of how effective it would be. In a ceremony yesterday, the Ministry of Labour inaugurated the program, which entails training ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/confidence-plan-low
Gov’t to meet unions for salary talks
Union members of the Ministry of Labour’s Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) will meet on Monday for a garment industry wage discussion focusing on ideas raised at a workshop in April. The invitation from Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng was sent to the seven LAC unions on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gov%E2%80%99t-meet-unions-salary-talks
Ocean workers pray for jobs
Protesting workers at Ocean Garment factory say they are worried the manufacturer, which has suspended operations for one month, will close altogether. About 20 per cent of Ocean’s 1,300 workers demanding full payment during the break have found work elsewhere, while longtime employees are literally praying ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ocean-workers-pray-jobs
Garment meeting: Official vows to stamp out corruption
A Ministry of Labour official yesterday vowed to go after any of his “corrupt” colleagues that deal with the garment and footwear sector, and urged workers to file complaints about substandard working conditions. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-meeting-official-vows-stamp-out-corruption
Protest blocked: Workers at factory seek full salaries
Police yesterday morning blocked more than 1,000 garment workers as they tried to march from their Por Sen Chey district factory to the Ministry of Labour to plead for intervention. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protest-blocked-workers-factory-seek-full-salaries
Factory faintings back on rise
More than 600 workers have fainted on factory floors so far this year, compared with about 800 such incidents over the whole of 2013, a Labour Ministry official said yesterday. Pok Vanthat, deputy director of the ministry’s labour health department and head of a committee that ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-faintings-back-rise
Protest blocked: Workers at factory seek full salaries
Police yesterday morning blocked more than 1,000 garment workers as they tried to march from their Por Sen Chey district factory to the Ministry of Labour to plead for intervention. Management at the Ocean Garment factory informed staff on May 24 that it would close for ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protest-blocked-workers-factory-seek-full-salaries