Labor

Even with an improved domestic job market, many Cambodian workers are seeking jobs overseas, despite the risks. This is mainly due to the government’s failure to get the word out, Moeun Tola, a labor advocate at the Community Legal Education Center, told “Hello VOA” Thursday. “We see ...

A shortage of workers, particularly those with skills, is the biggest threat to economic growth in Cambodia today, Sok Chenda, secretary general of the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC), said yesterday. Speaking at the Greater Mekong Subregion Investment Policy Forum organized by the Organization ...

Three factory workers were injured yesterday during a protest in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district when more than 500 workers clashed with about 100 police officers, according to eyewitnesses and union representatives. Workers from Win Shingtex (Cambodia) Co Ltd had originally planned to march from the ...

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr chose Cambodia as his first official overseas trip since his March 2 appointment to the top foreign policy job. The Australian Labor Party politician, former journalist and longtime premier of New South Wales sat down on Monday evening with the ...

In an effort to stop mass faintings at garment factories, a government committee will issue a prakas this year aimed at reducing fatigue among workers by requiring factories to establish on-site housing, an official said yesterday. Pok Vanthath, deputy director of vocational training at the Ministry ...

The Cambodian government was strengthening its capacity to combat human trafficking by focusing on poverty reduction and was eager to work with other groups tackling the crime, Interior Ministry Secretary of State Chou Bun Eng said yesterday. “The issues of human trafficking and migrating workers are ...

Striking workers planned to set tyres aflame today outside a garment factory that supplies JC Penney in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district, union officials said yesterday on the sixth day of the strike at Hong Kong-owned Win Shing-tex Cambodia Co Ltd. Ath Thorn, head of ...

A union representative is accused of beating a rival over the head with a walkie-talkie during a factory protest yesterday in the latest burst of violence in one of Cambodia’s special economic zones. Bou Sokray, 25, a representative for the Coalition of Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union ...

The Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions will hand out the first of more than 60,000 pamphlets to factory workers today as it encourages them to demand a significant wage increase and to strike if their plea is ignored. ...

Svay Rieng Provincial Prosecutor Hing Bunchea said yesterday that he had summoned two of the three women shot at a Bavet City special economic zone (SEZ) for questioning next week, and denied accusations that investigators were dragging their feet on the case. Rights groups continued to ...

The Free Trade Union (FTU) yesterday filed a complaint with Labor Minister Vong Sauth on behalf of nearly 4,000 garment workers in Kompong Chhnang province against Chinese-owned M&V International Manufacturing Ltd, alleging that they had been forced to work on International Women’s Day, which is ...

Two protests by garment factory workers in Phnom Penh yesterday achieved very different outcomes. One strike will continue today, but the other ended when company management agreed to workers’ demands. Din Sam Ath, president of the Cambodian Federation of Labour Unions, said the company would comply ...

The negotiations between Cambodia and Malaysia over a bilateral agreement on improved working conditions for Cambodian migrant maids are slowly progressing as both governments are exchanging draft agreements, according to officials from both countries. Ministry of Labor Secretary of State Othsman Hassan said that Cambodia recently ...

About 400 villagers in Kratie province’s Chhlong district protested yesterday in an effort to stop Kasten agro-industrial company from building houses on contested farmland, the protesters said. The company used red paint to demarcate its boundary and started building houses on the farmland in January, said ...

Some of the world’s largest international clothing brands, along with foreign labor protection groups, have called on the Cambodian government to intensify its investigation of last month’s triple shooting of spectators at a Svay Rieng special economic zone. Signed by several of the biggest customers ...

The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has said that there should be no discussions on raising the minimum wage until 2014, in response to a request from three garment industry unions for talks on a living wage for workers. The response, sent on Wednesday ...

The presidents of three unions have appealed to the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia to improve the “miserable” living conditions of its workers by providing higher wages and better benefits, a letter received by the Post yesterday shows. The letter is dated March 2 and signed ...

In the wake of several violent garment-factory protests last week, the International Labour Office yesterday launched a five-year, US$5 million Decent Work Country Program in Cambodia to focus on improving industrial relations. “[This] marks the beginning of a new body of work for the ILO in ...

The governor of a city in southeastern Cambodia was arrested Friday in connection with a shooting that left three workers hospitalized as they took part in protests for better labor conditions at a sportswear factory that supplies goods to German sportswear giant PUMA. Moeun Tola, head ...

More than 60 Cambodian and international human rights groups and trade unions yesterday called on Cambodia and Malaysia to reach a bilateral agreement that would guarantee strong labor rights and working conditions for Cambodian maids employed in Malaysia. “The time is ripe for the Cambodian ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday blamed illegal immigration for contributing to a current shortage in the Cambodian labor market but said workers could benefit from rising wages as a result of the demand for workers. Mr. Hun Sen said the shortage was hitting the agriculture sector ...

Beer promoters in Phnom Penh claimed Monday that they are being discriminated against for staging a month-long strike last summer, and their livelihoods are under threat. In July and August, hundreds of promoters for Cambrew Ltd – which produces and distributes Angkor beer – went ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday said all of the country’s cities would compete with each other to beautify urban zones and attract more tourists in the newly devised Clean City contest. Nine Phnom Penh districts and 26 cities nationwide will be assessed on how clean ...

Thousands of children are toiling in the country’s fisheries sector, living in conditions that are often hazardous to their health and depriving them of an education, government officials and UN representatives said yesterday at a workshop in Phnom Penh. Seventy-five percent of the 1.5 million ...