Labor policy and administration

The Foreign Ministry last Thursday secured the release of 23 Cambodians who had been arrested and detained last month for overstaying their visas and working illegally in Malaysia. Another 16 Cambodians detained by Thai authorities for lacking passports were released as well. ...

A group of 17 union leaders will demand $179.60 when they sit down for the latest round of negotiations this week to determine the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs more than 600,000 Cambodians. The monthly minimum wage is currently $140. The new figure ...

Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday told stakeholders involved in the upcoming minimum wage negotiations to base their demands on the country’s economic situation, and not to try to influence the process through protests or demonstrations. Talks over the 2017 minimum wage for the garment sector are ...

A workers’ strike escalated on Monday at Sihanoukville’s Angkor Beer-producing Cambrew factory, protesters said, with the company acknowledging that the work stoppage was causing major disruptions. ...

A California judge has ordered lawyers representing two US seafood companies to appear in court for a scheduling conference following a lawsuit filed on behalf of seven Cambodians who claim they were duped into a life of servitude working in factories that supply the firms. ...

Foreign Affairs Minister Prak Sokhonn has ordered Cambodian Embassy staff in Malaysia to find out whether more nationals are being held in any of the country’s detention facilities after 18 Cambodians were released from a prison in Kuala Lumpur last week. ...

Cambodian embassy officials in Thailand are now assisting migrant workers in Thai prisons by providing lawyers for them. Embassy officials also announced they are looking for relatives of a Cambodian man who died in Thailand late last month to take his body, which is being ...

Insurance sales have grown by 37 percent in the first half of the year, totaling $56 million, the Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC) announced in a report Tuesday.  The increase, up from $40.9 million for the same period last year, has been driven by a ...

The abuse of Cambodians employed in Thailand’s fishing industry was raised yesterday in a letter from the government’s Cambodian Human Rights Committee (CHRC) to their Thai counterparts, calling for improved monitoring of the much criticized and troubled industry. ...

Unions meeting on Friday arrived at an estimated cost-of-living salary for garment workers ahead of minimum wage talks, one remarkably similar to the monthly wage they’ve demanded two years running, though suggested the final number they push for will be higher. ...

As unions, employers and government officials met for the first time in the run-up to the annual battle over the garment industry’s minimum wage yesterday, another group of labour and advocacy groups were asking when they would be part of those discussions. ...

Under Cambodian law, the right to organize is supposed to be ironclad. No employer, government agent or citizen may impede union activity. Inside the walls of Cambodia’s largest special economic zones (SEZs), however, In These Times’ reporters saw a system designed to tightly control the workforce by ...

Almost 100 workers from the Chung Fai Knitwear FTY factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district gathered in front of the Municipal Courthouse again yesterday, demanding the court issue an arrest warrant for the owner of their factory, who fled the country last month and has ...

About 300 workers from South Korean firm LG Electronics gathered at the Ministry of Labor yesterday morning to protest against alleged mistreatment by their South Korean boss under Cambodian law. ...

Trade-related labour provisions, such as ones that address labour relations or minimum working conditions for employees, do not harm business or make trade provisions less popular, according to a study released today by the United Nations labour agency. ...

The Ministry of Social Affairs is looking for ways to bring old pension plans into line with pensions offered to more recently retired government workers.   ...

More than 100 striking workers at the Vanny Bio-Research company in Pursat town agreed to go back to work yesterday after mediators promised to find an adequate resolution to their demands for a wage hike. The company breeds and cares for 30,000-40,000 monkeys they sell to ...

At least three garment workers were hospitalized yesterday after a ceiling collapsed at a garment factory in Kampong Chhnang town, according to officials. ...

The Kampot Provincial Court on Thursday released three union leaders without charge after the Cambo T.D.G. garment factory dropped its complaint against the trio in return for an end to a two-week strike. ...

The Labor Court will be ready to hear cases by the end of next year, according to officials from the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training. The court is being optimistically designed to effectively resolve labor disputes in the garment sector, Labor Minister Ith Samheng said ...

Labor leaders in Cambodia have expressed concerns over pressures placed on their freedom to organize and mobilize garment workers following the implementation of a contentious law governing unions earlier this year. ...

The number of migrant workers who will travel to South Korea this year will nearly double compared with last year, according to the Labour Ministry. ...

After two weeks stuck inside an immigration office in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, a Cambodian domestic worker returned to Phnom Penh yesterday without assistance from the Cambodian government – on a plane ticket she says was paid for by Saudi immigration police. ...

According to a Labor Ministry prakas, or official statement, both employers and employees will be responsible for paying 1.3 percent of an employees’ monthly salary to the government for state-supplied health insurance guaranteed to all workers under the Labor Law. ...