Industries
Manufacturing
Cambodia factories snub workers arrested in January strikes
While the smoke has long cleared on January’s violent garment strikes, for many of the 23 workers and unionists arrested and tried on charges widely considered to be baseless, the ordeal is far from over. Nine months after security forces used deadly violence to end strikes ...
Alice Cuddy, Chhay Channyda & Mom Kunthear
http://www.ucanews.com/news/cambodia-factories-snub-workers-arrested-in-january-strikes/72213
Free Trade Union proposes $130 garment worker minimum wage
One of the country’s largest unions on Sunday came out in favor of a new minimum wage for garment workers far lower than what many of its counterparts have been agitating for over the past several months, bolstering prospects for a compromise with factories. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/free-trade-union-proposes-130-garment-worker-minimum-wage-70304/
No breakthrough in new talks for Cambodian minimum wage increase
Cambodian authorities have held two rounds of talks with garment factory owners and unions under a new mechanism to help break a deadlock over increasing the workers’ monthly minimum wage but to no avail. But Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that he expected the Garment ...
Roseanne Gerin
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/working-group-10162014181856.html
Pilot project to boost nutrition for Cambodian garment workers
A study by the International Labor Organization, the U.N.’s labor body, shows most Cambodian garment workers do not eat enough nutritious food and that, as a result, many are anemic and even underweight. Now, a pilot project will feed workers at five factories a free ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/pilot-project-to-boost-nutrition-for-cambodian-garment-workers/2483260.html
Another wage body to form
Following a meeting with parliamentarians at the National Assembly yesterday, Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng announced the ministry would form a 27-member committee to study technical aspects of raising the minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment sector. The new committee will comprise nine representatives each from ...
Pech Sotheary and Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/another-wage-body-form
Cambodian trade unions lead protest to demand higher wage for garment workers
Six Cambodian trade unions led around 1,000 garment workers to march through streets here on Sunday to demand a higher minimum wage as annual talks on a wage hike are scheduled for next month. ...
Global Post News Staff
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/xinhua-news-agency/141012/cambodian-trade-unions-lead-protest-demand-higher-wage-garme
Garment workers march for higher wages
More than 1,000 garment workers gathered in Phnom Penh and marched through the city center Sunday, demanding a “decent wage” from their factories, the largest garment-sector demonstration in the capital since military police fatally suppressed a protest for higher wages in January. ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-march-in-push-for-higher-wages-69635/
Latest garment export figures show growth
Garment and footwear exports earned $3.92 billion over the first eight months of 2014, up more than 7 percent year-on-year, according to new figures from the Ministry of Commerce. The latest numbers show a slowdown after year-on-year earnings for the first six months of the year ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/latest-garment-export-figures-show-growth-69546/
Six labor unions to hold public forum on minimum wage this weekend
At least six labor unions to be led by Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, will hold public forum at the Freedom Park on October 12 to discuss minimum wage demand for footwear and garment workers. A plan to hold the ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/six-labor-unions-to-hold-public-forum-on-minimum-wage-this-weekend-7464
Workers storm factory, attack managers
Thousands of unionists protesting their dismissal clashed with managers at a footwear factory in Kompong Cham province Monday morning, leaving at least two Taiwanese supervisors with head injuries. About 2,000 workers—who were fired from the Juhui footwear factory in Choeung Prey district last month over demonstrations ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-storm-factory-attack-managers-69209/
Wage decision delayed
Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng yesterday postponed his ministry’s Labour Advisory Committee’s decision on Cambodia’s garment sector minimum wage from Friday until next month, leaving some optimistic and others dubious. In the original schedule, the minimum wage for 2015 was slated to be set in ...
Sean Teehan and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-decision-delayed
Poverty line $120, gov’t says
Workers in Cambodia’s capital earning less than $120 per month are living below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning’s own calculation. At a September 17 workshop on the garment industry minimum wage, International Labor Organization Cambodia national director Tun Sophorn cited Ministry of ...
Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/poverty-line-120-gov%E2%80%99t-says
US retailers express support for Cambodian living wage
As a new round of Cambodian wage negotiations approaches this month, major U.S. and European retailers who source from the country say they will be watching the talks carefully and want to see fair pay for workers. Representatives of the brands like Gap, Levi Strauss, and ...
Kimseng Men
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-retailers-express-support-for-cambodian-living-wage/2470747.html
Workers strike over sacking of unionists
About 500 workers who have been on strike at a Chinese-owned footwear factory in Phnom Penh for the past two weeks protested in front of the Ministry of Labor yesterday asking for the government’s help in resolving the dispute. On September 15, more than 1,000 employees ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/workers-strike-over%E2%80%88sacking-of-unionists-68663/
Cambodian garment workers suffer from anemia, food insecurity: study
A new study indicated that 43. 2 percent of Cambodian garment workers suffered from anemia and 15. 7 percent of workers are underweight, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. The study also found that garment workers spent approximately 1. 3 U.S. dollars per day on ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-09/29/c_133682574.htm
Protests continue at Kompong Cham factory
About 2,000 workers from the Chinese-owned Juhui Footwear factory in Kompong Cham province began a fresh round of protests on Friday and Saturday over claims that the factory is refusing to rehire unionists who were fired during a strike earlier this month, a provincial official ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/protests-continue-at-kompong-cham-factory-68565/
Minister says wage agreement must be reached next month
Negotiations held on Friday between garment factory owners, union leaders and government officials failed to set a new industry minimum wage for next year, but a final decision will be reached by October 10, according to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng. The tripartite Labor Advisory Council ...
Sek Odom and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-says-wage-agreement-must-be-reached-next-month-68532/
Cambodia's garment, footwear exports up 12.6 pct in 7 months
Garment and footwear industry, Cambodia’s largest income earner, reported a 12.6 percent rise in exports in the first seven months of 2014, according to the data of the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. The country exported apparel and footwear products worth 3.47 billion U.S. dollars during ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-09/25/c_133672486.htm
Prey Veng workers protest for Pchum Ben advance
About 1,000 workers protested outside the Chinese-owned Komchay Mear Trading factory in Prey Veng province on Saturday morning after managers refused to give them a government-mandated salary advance for the Pchum Ben holiday, officials and unionists said on Sunday. The protest was short-lived, however, ending Saturday ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/prey-veng-workers-protest-for-pchum-ben-advance-68283/
Inditex, H&M agree to pay more for clothes from Cambodia
Fashion brands, including Europe’s biggest clothing retailer Inditex SA (ITX) and Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMB), said they are willing to pay more for clothes made in Cambodia, backing a trade union campaign for higher wages. The chains are among eight clothing retailers that include Next Plc (NXT) and Primark that have ...
Gabi Thesing
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-19/inditex-h-m-agree-to-pay-more-for-clothes-from-cambodia.html
Fired factory workers refuse severance, vow more protests
More than 5,000 employees of the Juhui Footwear Factory in Kompong Cham province who were fired on Tuesday after joining strikes to demand bonus pay and better benefits Wednesday rejected their severance packages and vowed to continue protesting. “We reject the full severance pay because we ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fired-factory-workers-refuse-severance-vow-more-protests-68171/
Workers start wage battle a day early
About 1,000 workers from a Phnom Penh footwear factory got an early start on Tuesday on a cross-union campaign for a $177 minimum wage, set to start today, protesting in front of their factory over internal workplace grievances. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-start-wage-battle-a-day-early-68119/
Thousands of workers go on strike in Prey Veng
Some 3,000 workers protested in front of a garment factory in Prey Veng province Monday, calling for larger bonuses and better working conditions, according to unionists and factory representatives. Employees of the Chinese-owned Komchay Mear Trading factory, which produces clothing for U.S. brand Gap, have been ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thousands-of-workers-go-on-strike-in-prey-veng-68069/
Audi opens dealership in capital
Automotive Asia (Cambodia), the only authorised dealer of Audi vehicles in Cambodia, opened its first showroom in Phnom Penh yesterday. The 2,000-square-metre showroom on Monivong Boulevard currently holds just two of the German carmaker’s models, the Q7 and the A8L, with prices ranging between $135,000 and ...
Hor Kimsay
http://phnompenhpost.com/business/audi-opens-dealership-capital