Labor

Garment and footwear industry workers were promised a range of services from Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday, including free bus rides, a minimum wage hike and health insurance. ...

Recruitment agencies must meet 10 requirements and have no record of wrong-doing for the past five years in order to send Cambodian workers to Japan, according to the Ministry of Labour. ...

Pro-government and independent unions are gearing up for negotiations to introduce a national minimum wage by the end of the year. ...

The Cambodian embassies in Malaysia and Vietnam have rescued 12 migrants who were cheated by human traffickers offering them well-paying jobs, with some set to be married off to men in China. ...

Anti-human trafficking police in Phnom Penh yesterday closed an illegal recruitment agency and arrested three people behind the operation, which was not registered with the Labour Ministry. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called for the closure of a Christian anti-trafficking NGO during a heated tirade at a graduation ceremony, condemning them and CNN for broadcasting an “insulting” story about girls who were sold into sexual slavery by their own mothers. ...

Cambodia lacks effective mechanisms to protect its citizens working both as legal and undocumented migrants abroad, where such workers also face insufficient protection from the countries that receive them, according to two new reports published last week. ...

The National Committee for Counter Trafficking’s (NCCT) six-month report, released on Monday, identified two cases of child labour in brick-making factories in Siem Reap, though officials and a rights group monitor said the use of such labour had decreased in the province. ...

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 National Social Security Fund (NSSF) said yesterday that incidents of garment workers fainting on the factory floor had increased by 39 percent over the first six months of the year when compared to the same period last year. ...

Operations against human trafficking networks increased by a whopping 127 percent compared to the same period in 2016, according to a six-month report released yesterday by the National Committee for Counter Trafficking (NCCT). ...

The Cambodian embassy in Malaysia has repatriated 14 Cambodian fishermen who fled a Thai boat and are believed to be human trafficking victims, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.​​ ...

Minister of Labour Ith Samheng yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with his Japanese counterparts to make it easier for Cambodian trainees to find work in Japan. ...

Cambodian workers on Saturday protested against the closing of unofficial border checkpoints in Banteay Meanchey, while hundreds of undocumented workers continued to return from Thailand through the official checkpoint in Poipet. ...

The Ministry of Labour has announced plans of a month-long research campaign into the living standards of garment and footwear factory workers prior to setting a minimum wage in 2018. ...

The Ministry of Labour has written to the Ministry of Information requesting that it take action against fraudulent recruitment agencies promoting services for migrant workers via radio advertisements. ...

The Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone and the United Nations Development Programme yesterday entered into an agreement to enhance PPSEZ’s corporate social responsibility in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. ...

Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng announced yesterday that this year’s round of garment sector minimum wage negotiations would begin in July, with unionists cautiously optimistic that next year’s national elections could benefit their cause despite calls from Sam Heng not to “politicise” the process. ...

A group representing some of the largest apparel brands in the U.S., including Gap and Levi Strauss, are urging Prime Minister Hun Sen to reconsider controversial provisions in a pair of draft laws on wages and labor disputes. ...

Domestic workers and NGOs yesterday urged the government to ratify a UN convention to protect domestic workers’ rights and freedoms, and to regulate their working conditions. ...

Local authorities in Poipet are grappling with a dilemma of their own making after the ruling party for months footed the bill to make day passes to enter Thailand free for Cambodian vendors – a populist move now complicated by the CPP’s apparent electoral loss ...

About a thousand workers from the Southland garment factory yesterday protested outside the Ministry of Labour to demand intervention from the authorities to force the company to reinstate 10 unionists suspended from work after a strike began earlier this week. ...

Ten union representatives were yesterday suspended from the Southland garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district after more than a thousand workers went on strike to protest the factory’s decisions about time taken off for voting in Sunday’s commune elections. ...

The government lifted a 2011 ban on sending Cambodian maids to Malaysia in January, according to a directive Prime Minister Hun Sen signed late last year, contradicting months of government denials. ...