Industries
Manufacturing
Thousands expected at municipal court in support of 23
Union leaders say they expect upwards of 1,000 people to jam the streets around Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday in a show of support for 23 unionists, workers and bystanders who are on trial for their alleged part in violent protests in Pur Senchey ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/thousands-expected-at-municipal-court-in-support-of-23-57342/
Garment maker to list at $2.41 per share
Grand Twins International, Cambodia’s second stock exchange listing, will list at the lower end of its expected buy-in range, an announcement on the Phnom Penh Securities (PPS) website said yesterday. GTI is to begin trading on May 29 with nine million shares at $2.41 each, according ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/garment-maker-list-241-share
Factory owners boycott wage talks for Cambodian garment workers
Garment factory owners failed to turn up for what was supposed to have been a tripartite meeting with the government and worker unions on Thursday to help break an impasse in negotiations to increase the minimum wage for workers, officials said. The International Labor Organization (ILO) ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-04242014182701.html
Cambodia has 960 garment, footwear factories: labor minister
Garment and footwear industry, Cambodia’s largest foreign exchange earner, currently consists of 960 factories, employing some 620,000 workers, labor minister Ith Samheng said Thursday. The sector made a revenue of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars last year, accounting for around 80 percent of the country’s total exports, ...
Asean - China Centre News Staff
http://www.asean-china-center.org/english/2014-04/24/c_133287164.htm
21 labor activists moved to Phnom Penh ahead of trial
Twenty-one labor activists who have been detained in Kampong Cham province since their arrests in January were moved to the main prison outside Phnom Penh on Wednesday. Supporters say the 21 are being detained as a lesson to other would-be demonstrators, after a brutal crackdown ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/labor-activists-moved-to-phnom-penh-ahead-of-trial/1899445.html
Union leaders in court over ‘detainment’ of factory boss
Two union leaders were summonsed and questioned by a municipal court prosecutor yesterday over allegations they illegally detained the boss of a packaging factory in Por Sen Chey district’s Choam Chao commune during a strike. According to Phnom Penh Municipal Court deputy prosecutor Ek Chheng Huoth, ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leaders-court-over-%E2%80%98detainment%E2%80%99-factory-boss
Harsh restrictions imposed on union leader
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ordered embattled union leader Ath Thorn to stay away from the SL garment factory and its workers and to avoid any public gatherings that could “damage public order,” drawing a tight circle around one of the country’s most ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/harsh-restrictions-imposed-on-union-leader-57067/
Wage-setting meet up in air
Exactly who will participate in a workshop to set the minimum wage in the garment sector with the Ministry of Labour this week remained unclear yesterday, with some key figures saying they had not yet been invited. During the workshop, to be held on Thursday and ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-setting-meet-air
Strikes still on in some provinces
Unrest in the garment sector spread yesterday, as hundreds of workers from Kandal province demonstrated outside their factory. The 700 workers at Unity Fashion factory walked off the job after managers said they would dock wages of workers who did not show up on April 17, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strikes-still-some-provinces
Clock ticks on C.CAWDU bail bid
Embattled union leader Ath Thorn yesterday said that he had begun a fundraising effort, trying to come up with $25,000 in bail money by the end of the week. Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said union members would begin ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/clock-ticks-ccawdu-bail-bid
Industry urged to go green
Small and medium-size enterprises (SME) have been urged by the Cambodian government to employ more environmentally friendly practices at a green industry workshop in Phnom Penh yesterday. Cham Prasidh, minister for the Ministry of Industry and Handicrafts, said SMEs and handicraft producers’ reliance on fossil fuels ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/industry-urged-go-green
Stay-at-home strike a bust as workers return to factories
The vast majority of the country’s 600,000-strong garment factory workforce appeared to be back on the job Monday despite a call from unions to continue a stay-at-home strike until Tuesday. Eight unions had spent weeks urging workers to stay home after the Khmer New Year from ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/stay-at-home-strike-a-bust-as-workers-return-to-factories-56888/
UN concerned about detainees’ presence at trials
The U.N.’s human rights office in Cambodia expressed concern Monday that 22 detained protesters may not be allowed to attend their trials on Friday, while the government insisted that the prisoners will be transported to the court. Two minors were arrested for intentional violence for their ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/un-concerned-about-detainees-presence-at-trials-56914/
Unrest among disabled security guards at SL Garment Factory
A team of disabled security guards hired to protect the embattled SL Garment Factory in Phnom Penh is seeking the formalization of their employment and an end to what they claim is the factory’s exploitation of their impairments. In November—at the height of an occasionally violent, ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unrest-among-disabled-security-guards-at-sl-garment-factory-56892/
Iffy factory supplying LA’s finest
A Phnom Penh-based factory supplying uniforms for police officers and firefighters in the US city of Los Angeles continues to break Cambodian labour laws, a report to be publicly released today says. Kin Tai Garment factory, a supplier to 5.11 Tactical – which sells the uniforms ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/iffy-factory-supplying-la%E2%80%99s-finest
2,500 workers in Bavet SEZ go on strike
More than 2,000 workers at three factories in Svay Rieng’s Bavet City went on strike Saturday, claiming their bosses owed them money. About 500 workers at the You Li factory, which makes baby clothes, went on strike Saturday because management refused to pay them for Thursday ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/2500-workers-in-bavet-sez-go-on-strike-56762/
Nationwide garment factory strike sputters into second day
A few garment factories resumed operations in Phnom Penh on Friday, albeit at reduced capacity, as thousands of workers returned to the city after Khmer New Year celebrations in the provinces. While the majority of factories in Meanchey and Pur Senchey districts stayed closed, it remained ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/nationwide-garment-factory-strike-sputters-into-second-day-56740/
Little appetite for garment strike in Phnom Penh
Most garment factories did not open for business Thursday, choosing to extend the Khmer New Year holidays—which officially ended Wednesday—rather than face industrial action in the form of a planned nationwide stay-at-home strike. However, a number of workers interviewed Thursday said they knew nothing about the ...
Zsombor Peter and Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/little-appetite-for-garment-strike-in-phnom-penh-56695/
Brands ‘violating contract rights’
Exclusive use of short-term contracts continues to impede progress in Cambodia’s garment sector, with major brands still sourcing from factories violating the statutory two-year limit on temporary employment, labour rights groups have warned. According to a report released last week by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98violating-contract-rights%E2%80%99
Cambodia must make union draft law public: rights group
Cambodia’s government should make public a proposed law aimed at regulating the country’s labor movement, a rights group said Thursday, amid concerns that it includes provisions for the suspension of unions and for severely restricting their right to freedom of association. Requests from civil society to ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/unions-04172014170804.html
Predictions mixed for post-new year garment strike
Along Phnom Penh’s industry-heavy Veng Sreng Street on Wednesday, garment factories lay idle in observance of Khmer New Year. The dorms around them were empty, save for the few workers who could not afford the bus ticket home for the holiday, which ended Wednesday. Eight unions ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/predictions-mixed-for-post-new-year-garment-strike-56624/
CPP vows to increase monthly wage to 250 dollars for civil servants and 160 dollars for garment workers by 2018
The ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) has issued nine points of its policies for upcoming local council Election which will be held on May 18, 2014. According a statement issued on Saturday, the policies included a promise to increase the monthly salary to 1,000,000 riel or ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=11&token=NDk3MDAwNTUzZTA
Staying at home not a strike, factories say
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) warned garment workers on Thursday that they risk losing their jobs if they extend their Khmer New Year vacation by joining a stay-at-home strike. Aiming to avoid police suppression of street protests for a higher garment sector minimum wage, ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/staying-at-home-not-a-strike-factories-say-56440/
Factory shutters in shame
The Zongtex Garment factory off Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard looks like a nondescript residential compound, hidden down a dead-end road. There are no signs suggesting that it supplied to some of the world’s leading high street names – and the US military. Taiwanese-owned Zongtex Garment Manufacturing ...
Daniel Pye, Alice Cuddy and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-shutters-shame