Labor

Female workers are still being paid less than their male counterparts on construction sites, while building companies value male construction workers as more skilled than women, according to a CARE Cambodia report released Friday. CARE’s research paints a comprehensive picture of the situation of women working ...

The government revealed its favored figure for the new garment and footwear industry minimum wage in 2017 during a Technical Working Group meeting on Friday, telling attendees that they believed it should be raised by about $8 per month – representing only a five percent ...

Employers released their starting figure for the new minimum wage yesterday, saying in an open letter that they planned to enter tripartite negotiations with $144.20 per month as their goal for 2017. In a letter from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed by secretary-general ...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday that Cambodia should improve its business climate and enhance competitiveness by upgrading infrastructure, improving the quality of labor, and strengthening governance as China changes its trade pattern by moving up the value chain. ...

Cambodian interns working in Japan on the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) must not run away from their employer or seek work with a firm different to the one they are contracted with, the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training said in a statement last ...

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 report published last week by the UN Action for Cooperation Against Trafficking in Persons (UN-ACT) says the main cause of human trafficking from Cambodia to China was a lack of jobs and low wages, forcing many young women to look at opportunities abroad. ...

A new report detailing the experiences of 42 women trafficked from Cambodia as brides to China found that officials in both countries were largely unsupportive in helping women escape once they were caught in unwanted domestic captivity. ...

Since the start of the year, department authorities at the Ministry of Interior have arrested more than 10,000 illegal workers, with the bulk of them being construction workers. However, industry experts and investors are split on the opinions that the arrest will impinge on the ...

The number of Cambodian women now thought to be caught in Saudi Arabia’s sex industry after being trafficked in the past year has risen to more than 20, officials said on Wednesday. However, the government remained tight-lipped about its efforts to rescue the women, while two ...

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. ...

Nearly 30 Cambodians detained in Thailand since early July were released last week, though four remain in detention, an official at the Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok said. The migrant workers – 20 women and 14 men – were arrested on July 7 and taken to a ...

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. ...

Nearly 26,000 undocumented Cambodian workers were deported by Thai authorities through border checkpoints, primarily Poipet and other secondary border crossings in Banteay Meanchey province, in the first six months of this year, an official said. ...

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 ...