Labor

Cambodian officials, led by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, on Monday met with a 18-member delegation representing global brands and trade unions to discuss garment worker rights and wages. It was the second round of talks between Cambodian government officials and representatives of major brands ...

About 150 garment workers turned out to the Phnom Penh of­fices of the United Sisterhood Alliance NGO on Sunday to watch a politically charged fashion show entitled “Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality.” Aimed to highlight “the income gap between Cambodian garment workers and the selected CEOs of ...

Eight members of Cambodia’s largest independent union were released on bail yesterday after being tried at Takeo Provincial Court over their alleged involvement in a factory protest late last week, officials said. Defence lawyer Kim Socheat said the members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ ...

The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between ...

Petrol station workers who were back on strike on Friday returned to work yesterday as they prepare to file a complaint to the Ministry of Labour against US-owned Caltex over alleged rights abuse. Yoeun Reth, one of 20 Caltex workers striking on Friday, said yesterday that ...

A pilot project to recruit maids from Cambodia is struggling to take off as workers are turned off by high recruitment fees, and the fear of not being able to adapt to life here. Under a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) pilot scheme that began last August, ...

Despite presenting no hard evidence against defendants throughout the two trials of 23 men arrested during a strike that turned deadly in early January, a prosecutor used his closing statement yesterday to up the charges against union leader Vorn Pov. The final day of two trials ...

Two union leaders narrowly escaped arrest yesterday morning when employees on strike at a Phnom Penh garment factory forced their release from police and security guards, fellow union officials said. Seang Sambath, president of the Worker Friendship Union Federation, said WFUF vice president Mao Vannak and ...

During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...

Employees of Caltex petrol stations in Phnom Penh are returning to work today after management offered to raise salaries by $20 a month and not withhold pay for time missed during the strike, which started earlier this month. ...

Trials against 23 labor activists continued in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, with union leader Von Pov addressing the court to defend himself. The activists are charged with inciting violence in mass demonstrations in January. The court was shown three video clips on Wednesday, in which Von Pov ...

Cambodia is a promising target for Taiwanese entrepreneurs seeking cheap labor without risking the social unrest that has surged through Vietnam, according to an economics professor in Taiwan cited in our Chinese-language sister paper China Times. Riots have broken out in Vietnam against China’s oil rig ...

Taking the stand for the first time since his arrest at a garment worker protest that turned violent in early January, union leader Vorn Pao told the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday that he went to the protest only to make peace and was ...

When union leader Vorn Pov was finally allowed to give testimony yesterday on the third day of the trial of 23 men arrested during a garment strike in January, he found himself cut off by an attorney ordering him to answer only the exact question ...

The government has a response to teachers’ request for health insurance: We’ll provide it if you buy it. At a meeting in Takeo province this past weekend, the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) said an upcoming teacher strike would include health insurance on the list of ...

Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...

The trial of 23 men arrested at violent demonstrations in early January continues at 8am today, and unionists are planning on rallying outside the court in a show of solidarity. About 100 union members will join staff from the Cambodian Labour Confederation and the Coalition of ...

After Caltex managers allegedly reneged on an agreement to pay workers a $20 bonus to suspend a strike for two months, employees say they would only return if the deal is in writing. In a Friday meeting, the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation agreed with ...

Teachers in Oddar Meanchey province, who last week accused dis­trict education officials of stealing their salaries, were on Monday threatened with expulsion for talking to the media, a teachers union said. The Anlong Veng district education director summoned about 15 teachers and school officials to the ...

Cambodia’s Ministry of Tourism says the country’s tourism sector is growing at an unsustainable rate that will cause a massive shortfall in skilled tourism-related labour. The ministry’s statistics department director, Kong Sopheareak, told local media that as tourist arrivals increase substantially every year, the challenge is ...

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has defended its decision not to pay a survivors’ pension to the family of a teenager killed in a ceiling collapse at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province last May. On the anniversary of the collapse on ...

In his fight for workers’ rights, Sar Mora has learned to be stubborn. The union leader behind the closure of Caltex gas stations across Phnom Penh, Mr. Mora’s members remained on strike Sunday despite an apparent agreement on Friday for workers to return to their stations. “We ...

Two factories in the Manhattan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town have fired more than 40 workers since thousands-strong strikes ended early this month, unions say. Terminations at Best Way and Fico garment factories were bosses’ way of exacting revenge for the ...

After a three-year moratorium on sending maids overseas—sparked by a spate of serious abuses by recruiters and employers—momentum is building to once again send hundreds of thousands of Cambodian women to work overseas as domestic servants. Since Prime Minister Hun Sen shut down the industry in ...