Labor

Opposition leader Sam Rainsy on Monday visited thousands of workers from two special economic zones (SEZs) in Svay Rieng province who have been on strike over wages and working conditions since December 16. More than 25,000 workers from 36 factories in the Manhattan and Tai Seng ...

When unions and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed a memorandum of understanding in October last year, both sides were confident strikes in the Kingdom’s biggest export sector could be kept to a minimum. Not counting December, GMAC has recorded 131 strikes this ...

Ahead of today’s Ministry of Labour announcement of a minimum wage increase for Cambodia’s apparel sector, opposition leader Sam Rainsy yesterday urged striking workers in Svay Rieng province to hold out until their monthly salary is raised to $160. “[Garment] workers should not return to work ...

About 1,000 workers at a Kandal province garment factory walked off the job on Saturday after management there fired eight employees who attempted to start a new union. ...

A union official at the center of a strike that started last Monday and involves an estimated 30,000 workers from two special economic zones (SEZs) in Svay Rieng province said Sunday that he has no control over the strikers, and does not know when or ...

Local human rights group Adhoc has called on the government to investigate the alleged detention and torture of a Cambodian woman at a Bangkok casino where she was employed. In a statement released Friday, Adhoc said the government must push for a “full investigation” into the ...

A new program launched yesterday has its sights set on ending the endemic problem of sexual harassment against women in the workplace. A ceremony at the Hotel Cambodiana marked the start of Safe Workplaces, Safer Communities, a project run by CARE Cambodia. The three-year program, which will ...

Police briefly detained 13 garment factory workers on Thursday after about 20,000 workers, some throwing rocks, continued a strike that began Monday in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City over wages and working conditions, a union official and police said. Union leaders had on Wednesday evening agreed ...

Garment industry, Cambodia’s largest foreign currency earner, reported a 22 percent surge in exports in the first 11 months of 2013, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday. The Southeast Asian nation exported apparel products in equivalent to 5.07 billion U.S. dollars during ...

The Better Factories Cambodia programme has been renewed after a new, three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed. The new agreement, aimed at furthering the initiative’s mission to improve working conditions in Cambodian garment factories, was signed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Cambodian Ministry ...

Around 40 Labor Unions in Cambodia have all agreed to pursue the third formula given by the Ministry of Labor, of a one time hike in minimum wage for footwear and garment factory employees in 2014. The Labor Unions agreed to pursue the hike in salary ...

An estimated 30,000 garment factory workers will resume work this morning after three days of strike action ended Wednesday when Svay Rieng provincial officials promised to help the strikers achieve their demands from factory owners. The mass strike led the owner of the Tai Seng Special ...

About 30,000 garment workers from 40 factories in Svay Rieng province yesterday were told to return to their jobs after being sent home Monday amid fears a strike over the minimum wage would turn violent. Has Bunthy, a provincial department director at the Ministry of Labour, ...

An NGO is working to free two Cambodian women forced into marriage in China, a representative of the organisation said yesterday. Huy Pichsovann, program officer at the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC), said that the two women, aged 22 and 27, were enticed from their Kampong ...

Family members of a group of Cambodian workers arrested with fake passports in Thailand on Friday claimed yesterday they had got them through a recruitment agency in Cambodia – an allegation the company’s president denied. According to Hau, Anny Rita Best Manpower promised that the ...

Taking part in daily demonstrations outside the shuttered factory where she once worked is beginning to weigh on Bou Narith and her co-workers. Government officials this morning will sit down with representatives of employees and a representative from USA Fully Field (Cambodia) Garment factory, which, ...

The government proposed doubling the minimum wage for garment workers—from $80 to $160—within five years during a meeting with labor unions and garment manufacturers on Monday at the Ministry of Labor. “We have a plan to raise the minimum wage up to $160 for garment workers, ...

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic for is pleased to support the official launch of measures to better protect Cambodian migrant workers. On 16 December 2013, ahead of International Migrants Day on 18 December, the Cambodian Ministry ...

Cambodia’s garment manufacturers and trade unionists on Monday began a negotiation on pay rise for garment workers in 2014 but reached no any agreement because the union representatives demanded to double the current wage. The talk was made between the employers represented by Nang Sothy, co-chair ...

Members of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) said during a conference Sunday that they are “fed up” with the government for not controlling strikes by labor unions. “All of us have the same issue: illegal strikes,” Van Porphin, a member of GMAC’s executive committee, ...

In a letter to three government ministries, a local domestic worker rights group last week demanded wage increases and limitations on work hours. Von Samphous, president of the fledgling Cambodian Domestic Worker Network (CDWN), sent the letter to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Ministry ...

Clothing giant H&M is considering raising retail prices and passing the buck onto the consumer to help pay higher wages to garment workers in poor countries. There won’t be any price increases in the short-term, but it “might be a possibility” in the future, Helena Helmersson, ...

Authorities issued an arrest warrant last week for the director of a local NGO involved with an operation that allegedly bilked thousands out of money by claiming the company could find them work in South Korea. Warrants for the arrests of Theun Samnang, head of NGO ...

A pilot scheme sending 400 Cambodian maids to Singapore has made a spluttering start, according to local media reports, with agencies in Singapore reportedly growing frustrated at the slow pace of maid arrivals and “sceptical” about the reliability of Cambodia as a source. Only about 100 ...