Labor
South Korea to double Cambodian migrant worker permits
The South Korean government will double the number of Cambodian migrant workers who are granted permits to take up employment in the country’s manufacturing, construction and agriculture sectors each year, officials said on Monday. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/south-korea-to-double-cambodian-migrant-worker-permits-78099/
Bavet factory ordered to close after mass faintings
The Svay Rieng provincial labor department on Monday ordered a Taiwanese-owned garment factory to temporarily close and improve its ventilation after more than 100 workers collapsed in two separate mass faintings in recent days. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bavet-factory-ordered-to-close-after-mass-faintings-78102/
Labor Minister warns officials over foreign work permits
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Thursday warned officials processing work permits for foreign workers to adhere strictly to all the relevant rules and regulations or risk an unwanted visit from the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU). The government has recently started enforcing a longstanding but largely ignored ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-warns-officials-over-foreign-work-permits-77922/
Labor minister says Unions have no reason to complain
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng on Wednesday denied recent claims from a group of disgruntled unions that the government was making it nearly impossible to register branches at garment factories, and announced a new push to bring noncompliant factories in line with Cambodia’s labor laws. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-minister-says-unions-have-no-reason-to-complain-77843/
Garment-sector raises hit by falling overtime
Garment workers around the country have started picking up paychecks this month that for the first time include the $28 increase the government added to the sector’s previous minimum wage of $100. But with available overtime hours on the wane, enthusiasm for the raise is ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-sector-raises-hit-by-falling-overtime-77666/
World Cup labour on agenda
Amid reports of hundreds of workplace deaths at World Cup construction sites, Qatar invited Cambodia on Saturday to discuss implementing a long-signed agreement to send labourers there ahead of the tournament in 2022. The issue was discussed during a meeting between Foreign Ministry Secretary of State ...
Taing Vida and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/world-cup-labour-agenda
Court charges union leader with making threat, extortion
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Thursday charged an independent union leader with making a threat accompanied by extortion after he was arrested with 51 bamboo poles while leading a strike of about 100 garment workers on Tuesday. According to Article 232 of the Criminal ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-charges-union-leader-with-making-threat-extortion-77471/
Workers say shuttered factory managers took them hostage
A Chinese-owned garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district locked up about 300 workers for two hours on Wednesday morning to force them to accept reduced salary payouts before it shuttered operations due to financial losses, union officials and the former workers said Thursday. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-say-shuttered-factory-managers-took-them-hostage-77469/
GMAC calls for law enforcement to ensure garment sector stability
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has called on all trade unionists to respect the law and halt violence if they want stability in Cambodia’s garment sector. ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/gmac-calls-for-law-enforcement-to-ensure-garment-sector-stability-8160
Rights groups ask World Bank to hold meeting with evictees
Rights groups have asked the World Bank to schedule a “special meeting” with evictees before deciding whether to lift a freeze on new loans to Cambodia, and to hold it in Thailand so that participants can speak their minds without fear of reprisal from the ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-groups-ask-world-bank-to-hold-meeting-with-evictees-77417/
Municipal Court questions arrested union head
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday began questioning union leader Seang Rithy, who was arrested outside a garment factory in Pur Senchey district on Tuesday while leading what police said was an illegal strike. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/municipal-court-questions-arrested-union-head-77411/
Thailand undecided over fate of Cambodian migrant workers
Thailand has still not decided what will happen to the 738,000 Cambodian migrant workers currently living in the country on temporary work permits when those documents expire at the end of March, an official from the Thai Labor Ministry said Wednesday. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thailand-undecided-over-fate-of-cambodian-migrant-workers-77407/
Six unionists arrested, released in Bavet City over incitement
Six union organizers were arrested in Svay Rieng province Wednesday while distributing letters to workers in an attempt to refute rumors that their union had taken cash in exchange for not protesting over the firing of eight of their members, according to the union and ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/six-unionists-arrested-released-in-bavet-city-over-incitement-77403/
Rights groups ask World Bank to hold meeting with evictees
Rights groups have asked the World Bank to schedule a “special meeting” with evictees before deciding whether to lift a freeze on new loans to Cambodia, and to hold it in Thailand so that participants can speak their minds without fear of reprisal from the ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/rights-groups-ask-world-bank-to-hold-meeting-with-evictees-77417/
Strike-leading union head arrested in Phnom Penh
The pugnacious leader of an independent workers union was arrested outside a garment factory on Phnom Penh’s industrial outskirts Tuesday morning for leading what police described as “illegal striking and an anarchic union.” ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/strike-leading-union-head-arrested-in-phnom-penh-77342/
Fainting figures jumped in 2014: government
Workplace faintings last year jumped more than 100 per cent from 2013, a report from the Ministry of Labour and National Social Security Fund (NSSF) released yesterday says. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/fainting-figures-jumped-2014-government
Wage wait: Unionists not impressed with promise
Labor leaders sniffed at the government’s stated commitment yesterday to hike the wage in the garment industry to $160 – by 2018. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-wait-unionists-not-impressed-promise
Loggers held in Thailand sent home after 1 year
Three Cambodian men who were arrested in Thailand more than a year ago after venturing across the border to illegally log rosewood were on Monday released from prison and sent back home, border officials said. You Sothearith, chief of the immigration police at the checkpoint, ...
Saing Soenthrith
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/loggers-held-in-thailand-sent-home-after-1-year-77264/
Permit penalty: New fine in works for workers
Starting on April 1, the government will charge $5 a day for every day that a staff member of a company in Cambodia is without a work permit, according to a senior immigration official. The census is part of an overall tightening of labour laws ...
Taing Vida
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/permit-penalty-new-fine-works-workers
Unions wary of energy plan
Some labour unions are suggesting reforms to state energy provider Electricite du Cambodge’s (EdC) plan to grant energy discounts to garment workers in Phnom Penh, saying yesterday that the current arrangement is “too complex to implement”. According to the new plan, workers are entitled to ...
Sarah Taguiam and Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-wary-energy-plan
Unions warn of strikes over gov’t rejection of new branch
A group of eight trade unions Thursday said the government has turned down every one of their applications to form local branches at the country’s garment factories since early last year and threatened mass strikes if the rejections continue. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-warn-of-strikes-over-govt-rejection-of-new-branches-77031/
Monks, migrants came into Thailand ‘illegally’
Thai officials sent 64 migrant workers and seven monks back to Cambodia yesterday, saying the Cambodia nationals had entered the country without proper authorisation. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/monks-migrants-came-thailand-illegally
Ministry outlines procedures for businesses hiring foreigners
The Labor Ministry released a statement Monday with a list of procedures all businesses in Cambodia that hire foreign workers must follow in order to comply with the country’s long-standing Labor Law. According to Monday’s statement, which was signed by Labor Minister Ith Sam ...
Union complains of spate of illegal garment factory firings
Union leader Pav Sina on Tuesday said garment factories around the country illegally fired dozens of his local representatives last year, far more than in 2013, and urged the government to help get their jobs back. Mr. Sina’s Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) is ...