Manufacturing
Garments and textiles
Workplace deaths up
Workplace deaths shot up more than 60 per cent last year when compared with 2012, while injuries and payouts to those injured also saw dramatic increases, according to data released yesterday by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Speaking during a conference at the Ministry of ...
Sen David and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workplace-deaths
Social Security Fund starts new insurance scheme
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) on Monday launched an initiative to provide health insurance to the nation’s workforce, a plan that the country’s largest employers’ associations said was premature. NSSF director Ouk Samvithya said that by the middle of this year, enterprises in the country ...
Aun Pheap and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/social-security-fund-starts-new-insurance-scheme-55375/
Lawyer has hopes Veng Sreng clients will be freed
A lawyer representing three of the 23 people arrested during garment strike clashes on January 2 and 3 hopes the capital’s court will drop charges against her clients when it hears their case on April 18, she said yesterday. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lawyer-has-hopes-veng-sreng-clients-will-be-freed
Brands ‘failing their workers’
European mega-brands are not doing enough to ensure that the Cambodian workers who make their products receive a basic living wage, according to a report released today. Tailored Wages, an analysis of 50 of Europe’s biggest clothing brands, found that many major high-street chains are doing ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98failing-their-workers%E2%80%99
Workers to file stories from the factory floor
The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) is hoping to turn a select group of garment workers into muckrakers by offering a journalism program through the Voice of Democracy news outlet. Free of charge, the course will last until October and have a firm focus on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-file-stories-factory-floor
Gov’t pins $275,000 in protest damage on CNRP
A government committee charged with assessing damage from the garment worker protests in December and January has put the value of the destruction at over $250,000. It places blame squarely on the opposition CNRP and a trio of union leaders. That committee’s report, released Thursday, ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-pins-275000-in-protest-damage-on-cnrp-55123/
Grand Twins may price Cambodia IPO below mid-point of indicative range
Tepid interest in a Taiwanese-owned garment manufacturer’s planned initial public offering in Cambodia means that the deal could be priced below the midpoint of an indicative range, a person with direct knowledge of the offering said Thursday. Grand Twins International (Cambodia) PLC had planned to sell ...
Unions to lead holiday strike
When is a strike not a strike? That’s a question being asked after union leaders yesterday announced they will inform garment factory owners that their members want to use annual leave days to wage their stay-at-home strike the week after Khmer New Year. The leaders of eight ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-lead-holiday-strike
Labor minister responds to brands’ concerns
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Tuesday that he has sent a letter responding to 30 international clothing brands who recently wrote to the government expressing their concerns over a draft union law which could allow for the arbitrary breakup of unions. Speaking outside a conference ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-responds-to-brands-concerns-54931/
Wing Star workers to end strike
Employees at the Kampong Speu shoe factory where a ceiling collapse killed two workers last May are headed back to work today after more than a week on strike, but will take their demands to the Arbitration Council. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-workers-end-strike
Court probe of Veng Sreng Street slaughter ends
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has finished an investigation into the shooting deaths of five protesting garment factory workers, and the wounding of more than 40 others, during a military police operation against stone-throwing strikers on January 3, Judge Phou Povsun said Sunday. “We had finished ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-probe-of-veng-sreng-street-slaughter-ends-54303/
Lawyer to bring security forces complaint to ICC
A lawyer hired by the opposition CNRP said Tuesday that he would file a complaint next month with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over crimes against humanity allegedly perpetrated by state security forces. “We plan to file a Communication [complaint] before the International Criminal Court next ...
Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawyer-to-bring-security-forces-complaint-to-icc-54458/
Wing Star strike to continue after meeting fails
Thousands of workers at the Wing Star Shoes factory demonstrated Tuesday for the second day in a row outside the factory in Kompong Speu province after a meeting between union and company officials failed to reach an agreement that would end an ongoing strike, worker ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/wing-star-strike-to-continue-after-meeting-fails-54461/
Wing Star workers walk out
Provincial Ministry of Labour officials will today meet with union representatives and management at the factory where a ceiling collapse killed two workers last May, in an attempt to resolve a strike. About 5,000 employees at Wing Star Shoes, an Asics supplier, walked off the job ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-workers-walk-out
Workers demand bonus increase, labor laws
About 7,000 workers protested in front of the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. factory in Kompong Speu province on Monday, demanding that the company raise their bonuses by $5 and properly enforce a number of labor laws, a union official said. The strike comes ten months ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-demand-bonus-increase-labor-laws-54431/
ILO reports improved factories from December to February
A small set of Cambodian factories being monitored by the International Labor Organization have showed some signs of improvement, according to a recent report. The ILO’s Better Factories initiative monitors 51 facilities. In a new report, the ILO says 30 of those factories showed signs of ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/ilo-reports-improved-factories-from-december-to-february/1873027.html
Factory flaws go live
Unionists and labour rights officials are applauding a website scheduled to go live today that will hold to account garment factories that flout Cambodia’s labour law. The site, created and maintained by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, will publicly name factories ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-flaws-go-live
Union representatives file complaint against leaders over pilfering
Two union organizers have filed a complaint with the Phnom Penh Municipal Court claiming that the senior leaders of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) have embezzled money that was meant to be paid to workers in compensation following a dispute with ...
EU concerned, but no threats to cut Cambodia aid, trade
The European Union has called on Cambodia to release 21 jailed activists and protesters and told the government during high level talks held here this week that a failure to reform the judiciary and electoral process could have severe consequences for the ruling party by ...
Simon Marks
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-concerned-but-no-threats-to-cut-cambodia-aid-trade-54254/
New report says garment sector fails to meet UN standards
Cambodian garment manufacturers and the association that governs them are failing to meet the standards set by the U.N.’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as evidenced by lethal violence against workers during garment strikes in January, when five people were shot dead and ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-report-says-garment-sector-fails-to-meet-un-standards-54191/
On 1st day, garment strike gains little traction
Two unions that called for a stay-at-home strike by garment factory employees Wednesday had little success in mobilizing workers after six other unions, under pressure from the government and factory owners, pulled out of the planned industrial action on Tuesday. Union leaders who pushed ahead with ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/on-1st-day-garment-strike-gains-little-traction-54038/
Minority of unions still strike
A small number of workers from four union groups took part in a stay-at-home-strike yesterday, union leaders said, after mass industrial action was postponed the day before. Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said members of his union from a “small amount” of factories had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minority-unions-still-strike
Grand Twins sets listing date
Taiwanese garment manufacturer Grand Twins International says it will officially list and start trading on the Cambodia Stock Exchange (CSX) on May 8 after spending several weeks whipping up interest from local investors, whose appetite remains on the low side so far. Stanley Shen, a spokesman ...
Eddie Morton
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/grand-twins-sets-listing-date
Riot police ready for action, protests on standby
About 100 Daun Penh district riot police on Wednesday held exercises in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park in preparation for possible industrial action in a week that garment workers’ unions had called for a mass stay-at-home strike. Unions had downscaled plans of street protests to a mass ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/riot-police-ready-for-action-protests-on-standby-54051/