Garments and textiles

Nearly 1,000 workers from the Collective Union of Movement of Workers on Saturday kicked off a campaign to demand government intervention to end short-term contracts being peddled to a majority of garment workers. ...

The government yesterday significantly upped the garment and footwear sector’s minimum wage to $170 a month, from $153, the highest increase in wages in the past two years and one that comes ahead of a crucial national election next July. ...

The industry body representing Cambodia’s garment sector issued a statement yesterday urging the government to help manufacturers reduce the cost of doing business in order to offset a higher minimum wage and workers benefit package due to come into effect on January 1. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called on garment factory owners to reduce the use of short-term employment contracts. Speaking to more than 15,000 workers and employers representing 10 factories in Phnom Penh’s Por Senchey district, Mr Hun Sen said short-term contracts threaten the health of employees. ...

Despite better than predicted overall growth for global economies, the World Bank has slightly downgraded its 2017 forecast for Cambodia due to wage and price concerns in the Kingdom’s the garment industry as well as uncertainty surrounding next year’s national election. ...

Union negotiators on the minimum wage for garment, textile and footwear workers have lowered their claim from $176.26 per month to $175 while the employers have increased their offer from $161 to $161.50. ...

n a speech to 65 senior government officials yesterday, Cambodia’s acting foreign affairs minister said this month had been “the worst” so far in the history of Cambodia-US relations. “Our relationship seems to be difficult,” said Ouch Borith, who is second-in-command at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. ...

Cambodia intends to submit a petition to the United States government to extend the duty-free privileges of its Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme to include footwear, giving local manufacturers a competitive advantage in the world’s biggest consumer market. But hopes are dimming as the ...

The Ministry of Labour has weighed into a dispute between more than 600 garment workers and their former employer, confirming that the factory owner has closed operations and disappeared.   ...

The Ministry of Labour’s spokesman yesterday said that free medical treatment for garment workers, announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen last week, will start on January 1. Spokesman Heng Sour said the scheme would have help from other ministries. ...

National Road 3 is to be widened to four lanes under a government development scheme financed by a Chinese loan. Speaking yesterday in a meeting with garment workers at Vattanac Industrial Park II, which is on National Road 3, Prime Minister Hun Sen said the upgrade ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday continued his bid to woo the Kingdom’s thousands-strong bloc of garment workers, reminding workers of the perils of former opposition leader Sam Rainsy’s proposal to leverage an EU embargo on garment imports to improve the country’s political and human rights ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has ordered officials to set up health centres next to factories and areas where workers live to improve treatment for staff who fall sick. ...

While industry, particularly the textile, travel bag and footwear sectors, is diversifying to high value added products, upgrading of high technology and modern machinery is needed for all factories, a senior official at the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said. ...

The Cambodian Labour Confederation said garment workers need a monthly wage of $224 to survive, a steep rise from Prime Minister Hun Sen’s proposed increase to $168. ...

A controversial universal minimum wage law will be passed this year in order to prevent a repeat of the mass protests over garment sector wages that rocked the country in 2013, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said yesterday, despite calls for revisions from independent unions ...

Garment and footwear manufacturers have called on the government to provide facilities to help offset the higher costs on production that they will face as the result of a benefits package that Prime Minister Hun Sen pledged to garment factory workers this week. ...

H.E. Ok Boung, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Commerce, held a discussion with H.E. Ms. Pottie Donica, Canadian Ambassador to Cambodia, on bilateral trade relations, mainly in garment sector, at the ministry office on Monday afternoon, said the ministry’s news release. ...

Exports to the US saw a modest rebound during the first half of the year, benefiting in part from new trade privileges that allow Cambodian-made travel goods to enter the world’s biggest consumer market duty-free, a Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) representative said yesterday. ...

Cambodia’s garment exports grew slower than expected by about 4 percent in the first half of the year compared with 9 percent in the same period last year while foreign investment in the sector fell by 30 percent, according to a report released by the ...

An international alliance of NGOs has started a campaign to urge two prominent U.K. clothing retailers and a Canadian brand to compensate 208 factory workers who lost their jobs when the Chung Fai Knitwear factory abruptly closed a year ago. ...

The Chinese government has pledged to build a vocational training centre in Preah Sihanouk province to help Cambodians develop skills for the workplace. Labour Minister Ith Samheng signed the deal to build the centre as he led ministry delegates on an official visit to China this ...

The Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia (GMAC) yesterday officially launched the GMAC Human Resources Club to build a knowledge bank, share information, experience and expertise to improve the industry. ...

The British government has attempted to assuage the fears of least developed countries (LDCs) including Cambodia by assuring them that they will retain their trade privileges to the United Kingdom following the country’s exit from the European Union ...