Labor
Labor policy and administration
Ministry Questions Unions Over Role in Kandal Garment Protest
The Interior Ministry has summoned six union representatives for questioning following a complaint from Jack Liu, director-general of Tainan Enterprises (Cambodia) Co., Ltd., alleging that they incited violence at his Kandal province garment factory in late December. A letter dated Thursday, signed by the Interior Ministry’s ...
Labor Leaders Say Negotiations Should Continue
International trade leaders say Cambodia’s workers and managers should continue to negotiate for an increase in wages, despite a deadly crackdown on worker protests earlier this month. Workers want a raise in the minimum wage to $160 per month to keep up with the rising cost ...
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/labor-leaders-say-negotiations-should-continue/1837064.html
Interior Ministry Says No to Freedom Park Rally
The government will consider a planned union rally on Sunday of several thousand people at Freedom Park in Phnom Penh an attempt to “overthrow the government,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak said on Friday. Phnom Penh municipality rejected the request to hold the rally, but ...
Sinary Sany
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/interior-ministry-says-no-to-freedom-park-rally-51032/
Workers strike again to demand strike pay
About 2,000 workers at Takeo province’s I-Cheng (Cambodia) Cooperation remain on strike today, after management held steady in its refusal to pay employees for days they joined in a national garment worker strike in December and this month. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-strike-again-demand-strike-pay
Unions take big picture view
Union leaders yesterday said that despite having held strikes calling for a doubling of the minimum wage that were supported and encouraged by the country’s opposition party, they did not feel betrayed that the wage hike was taking a backseat in political negotiations. Following a government ...
Mom Kunthear and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-take-big-picture-view
The Plight of Cambodia's Garment Workers, On Display on a Manhattan Sidewalk
Last week, on a busy sidewalk in Times Square, a hunched figure in a surgical mask labored at a hand-operated sewing machine. This anonymous worker was Khmer-American artist Kat Eng. According to her website, she sat in front of the flagship location of clothing giant H&M ...
Sarah Goodyear
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2014/01/plight-cambodias-garment-workers-laid-bare-manhattans-sidewalks/8187/
Chea Vichea Remembered 10 Years After Slaying
Ten years ago Wednesday, union leader Chea Vichea walked to his favorite newsstand in front of Wat Lanka to read the day’s headlines: Prime Minister Hun Sen had ordered spending cuts, health officials were trying to handle the first outbreak of bird flu in Southeast ...
Khy Sovuthy and Denise Hruby
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chea-vichea-remembered-10-years-after-slaying-50962/
Digital Divide staff back on job
A week-long strike involving more than 100 work-study participants at Phnom Penh-based NGO Digital Divide Data ended on Sunday following talks conducted by the social enterprise’s CEO, who flew in from New York to attend to the matter, participants and management said yesterday. Program participants, who ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/digital-divide-staff-back-job
Minimum wage up for ministerial discussion
An interministerial committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon will meet next month to discuss the recent minimum wage increase and subsequent fallout. Ministry of Labour spokesman Heng Sour yesterday told the Post that Prime Minister Hun Sen assigned Chhon to lead the meeting ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minimum-wage-ministerial-discussion
Pro-Government Unions Call for Action Against Leaders of Strikes
Unions aligned with Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government issued a statement Wednesday calling on it to “take action” against union leaders who they accuse of inciting workers to hold strikes and violent demonstrations. “We would like to request [CPP Labor Minister] Ith Sam Heng to take ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/pro-government-unions-call-for-action-against-leaders-of-strikes-50970/
Large protest planned for Sunday
Amid the continued arrest of activists who have defied a ban on public gatherings, a group of unions and associations yesterday revealed plans for a large demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park on Sunday. About 10,000 people are expected to attend the rally, according to a ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/large-protest-planned-sunday
Beyond Chea Vichea, Many Cases Lack Accountability, Justice
Ahead of the 10-year anniversary on Wednesday of the assassination of Free Trade Union (FTU) President Chea Vichea, police said Monday that despite their inability to bring anyone to justice for the high-profile slaying, the case remains open. However, Chea Mony, the brother of Chea Vichea, ...
Khy Sovuthy and Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-ambassador-distances-local-delegation-from-resolution-50914/
Union rep sidesteps gov’t meet
Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers Association, said yesterday he had been successful in postponing a meeting with the Ministry of Interior about his association, which has come under fire for allegedly engaging in political activities. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-rep-sidesteps-gov%E2%80%99t-meet
Diplomats, Donors Lobbied to Help Free Jailed Protesters
Challenging the ban on demonstrations in Phnom Penh, activists rallied Friday at the U.S. Embassy, the Japanese Embassy, the Australian Embassy and the German Embassy before stopping for lunch and rallying again, in the afternoon, at the British Embassy, the European Union and World Bank ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/diplomats-donors-lobbied-to-help-free-jailed-protesters-50852/
Lawyers Submit Bail Requests for Imprisoned Protesters
Ten lawyers representing 22 of the 23 striking workers, union officials and political activists imprisoned at a maximum-security prison in Kompong Cham province since their arrests at two protests in Phnom Penh earlier this month submitted bail requests for their clients Thursday, one of the ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/lawyers-submit-bail-requests-for-imprisoned-protesters-50785/
Man healed, held against will
Today, a month to the day after his stomach ruptured, Term Hun, 49, remains hospitalised. He was operated on and has long since healed. But without the money to pay for his treatment, the clinic refuses to let him go. After receiving emergency surgery at ...
Koam Chanrasmey and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/man-healed-held-against-will
Ceremony Held for Workers Killed at Veng Sreng
Dissident monks and political activists hosted a ceremony Thursday for the protesting garment workers killed by military police during their repression of stone-throwing demonstrators on Veng Sreng Street two weeks ago. The hourlong ceremony, held at the home of housing rights activist Tep Vanny in the ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ceremony-held-for-workers-killed-at-veng-sreng-50795/
One Garment Strike Ends, Two Begin, Over Missing Pay
Garment workers at a Kandal province factory ended their most recent strike Thursday after management agreed to pay out part of their wages for the days they were absent during a previous strike, while workers at a Phnom Penh factory went back on strike because ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/one-garment-strike-ends-two-begin-over-missing-pay-50787/
Manhattan workers on strike again
More than 1,000 workers at the Manhattan (Cambodia) Co Ltd garment factory in Kampong Cham province are striking in the wake of factory management’s reaction to their last strike action. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/manhattan-workers-strike-again
Strike action still on table, unions say
Leaders of unions that declared a nationwide garment worker strike said the work stoppage and protests, which they temporarily suspended, will resume unless government officials renegotiate the industry’s minimum wage. The announcement was their first since authorities cracked down on strike demonstrations on January 2 and ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-action-still-table-unions-say
Hun Sen: Minimum wage of workers cannot be increased to USD160
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday said it would be impossible to double the garment workers from USD 80 to USD 160 even though he wish to see them to have better life. “Which leaders and Prime Ministers don’t want to see their peoples have good ...
Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=M2EzNmZiZGVkNjA#sthash.0G8ytVha.dpuf
Official busted for alleged graft
An official at the Takeo provincial department of labour was arrested on Friday and charged for allegedly embezzling more than $310,000 from vocational teachers, the ACU and a prosecutor said yesterday. ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/official-busted-alleged-graft
No union for workers in food biz
After the Ministry of Labour denied a food service union official registration, a union official is crying foul, asserting that authorities are discriminating against her group – a charge the government denies. The Cambodian Food and Service Worker Federation (CFSWF), a 4,000-member union representing workers in ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/no-union-workers-food-biz
Garment Workers Go Back on Strike Over Unpaid Wages
Thousands of garment workers from four factories have gone back on strike this week to protest a decision by their employers to withhold pay for the days they did not work during recent nationwide strikes. Between 8,500 and 12,500 workers at four factories—two in Phnom Penh, ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-go-back-on-strike-over-unpaid-wages-50580/