News
Union law could cost CPP the next election, labor leader warns
Draft legislation on trade unions will undermine the hard-won progress of labor unions here as well as violate fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution, labor law and UN conventions, labor leaders said yesterday. ...
Chea Takihiro
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14396/union-law-could-cost-cpp-the-next-election--labor-leader-warns/
Garment factories vote to freeze minimum wage
A majority of members of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, which represents the country’s more than 500 exporting garment factories, have voted against any raise to their workers’ minimum wage next year. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-factories-vote-to-freeze-minimum-wage-91436/
Labor leaders want draft law on unions made public
Union leaders will send yet another request to the Ministry of Labor this week to call for changes to a contentious draft law that critics fear will take power away from labor organizations and benefit factories in Cambodia’s largest industry. ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/labor-leaders-want-draft-law-on-unions-made-public/2911403.html
Labor leaders request changes to draft Law on Unions
Union leaders have sent a request to the Ministry of Labor to make changes in a draft law to regulate unions, which experts say could be used to severely limit the freedom of assembly for workers. Earlier this month, some 200 union members met to ...
Phorn Bopha
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/labor-leaders-request-changes-to-draft-law-on-unions/2875739.html
Unions suggest changes to law
Members of 30 independent and government-leaning labour unions and labour advocacy groups met yesterday to discuss aspects of a draft trade union law they want altered, and strategies for accomplishing the changes. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-suggest-changes-law
Child garment workers not a problem, minister says
The labor minister said Tuesday there were so few underage workers in the garment industry that “we can count them on our fingers,” but a unionist and an NGO countered that child labor was still rife in the country’s smaller garment factories. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/child-garment-workers-not-a-problem-minister-says-85699/
Garment workers again target $177 minimum wage
Cambodia’s garment workers will renew their campaign for a monthly wage of $177 next month, when talks start for a new minimum wage, labor leaders said yesterday. ...
Va Sonyka
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/12352/garment-workers-again-target--177-minimum-wage/
Unions eye wage discussion
Negotiations for next year’s minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment and footwear sector are already gearing up, as union leaders prepare to meet this month to discuss what wage they will demand. During the week of June 21, union heads will hold a preliminary consensus-building meeting, said ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-eye-wage-discussion
Fake IDs make mockery of factory age rules
On a dusty highway on the edge of this port city, thousands of young women and a few hundred young men block evening traffic as they stream out of the New Star Shoes factory. ...
Jamie Elliott and Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/fake-ids-make-mockery-of-factory-age-rules-80492/
Mam Sonando blames Union for protests at Beehive
The owner of an independent radio station engulfed in a bitter dispute with a number of his employees blamed the conflict on a prominent union leader on Friday. ...
Ben Sokhean and Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mam-sonando-blames-union-for-protests-at-beehive-79799/
Unionist accused of withholding payments
Former employees of a Phnom Penh factory that burned down in July held a small protest outside the office of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), demanding payment they say they are owed. ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/unionist-accused-withholding-payments
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
Faintings up: Union report
About 1,800 people fainted at work in 2014, roughly 1,000 more than the previous year, according to Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) statistics surveying multiple industries in the Kingdom. Work-related deaths fell from about 96 in 2013 to 73 in 2014, while issues such as arrests and ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/faintings-union-report
Cambodia to discuss garment sector wages next week
A Cambodia government-appointed Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) may decide on a new minimum monthly wage for garment sector workers when it meets next week, just-style has been told. The committee is due to meet on Wednesday (12 November), when it will discuss whether to increase the ...
Poorna Rodrigo
http://www.just-style.com/news/cambodia-to-discuss-garment-sector-wages-next-week_id123496.aspx
Court places two more union heads under supervision
Five of the six union leaders accused of alleged criminal activity during nationwide garment worker strikes and demonstrations in December and January are now under judicial supervision after two more of the group appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-places-two-more-union-heads-under-supervision-71584/
Union proposal for minimum wage scrapped in Cambodia
Activists have decried a decision by the Ministry of Labour to disregard union pleas for a hike in the minimum wage for some of the country’s 500,000 garment workers, one warning that it could lead to civil unrest. The unions’ wage proposal received only seven ...
World Bulletin News Staff
http://www.worldbulletin.net/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia/147476/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia
Union proposal for minimum wage scrapped in Cambodia
Activists have decried a decision by the Ministry of Labour to disregard union pleas for a hike in the minimum wage for some of the country’s 500,000 garment workers, one warning that it could lead to civil unrest. The unions’ wage proposal received only seven ...
World Bulletin News Staff
http://www.worldbulletin.net/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia/147476/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia
Labor groups press ministry on new union registration rules
About 100 workers representing eight trade unions and labor associations rallied in front of the Ministry of Labor on Sunday demanding that the government relax registration requirements that they say are being used to stifle efforts to increase their memberships. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-groups-press-ministry-on-new-union-registration-rules-71009/
US retailers express support for Cambodian living wage
As a new round of Cambodian wage negotiations approaches this month, major U.S. and European retailers who source from the country say they will be watching the talks carefully and want to see fair pay for workers. Representatives of the brands like Gap, Levi Strauss, and ...
Kimseng Men
http://www.voanews.com/content/us-retailers-express-support-for-cambodian-living-wage/2470747.html
Minister says wage agreement must be reached next month
Negotiations held on Friday between garment factory owners, union leaders and government officials failed to set a new industry minimum wage for next year, but a final decision will be reached by October 10, according to Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng. The tripartite Labor Advisory Council ...
Sek Odom and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-says-wage-agreement-must-be-reached-next-month-68532/
Union leader re-elected despite deputy’s protest
Vorn Pao was re-elected president on Thursday of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), a labor group comprised mostly of tuk-tuk drivers and moto-dops, in an uncontested ballot after his vice president withdrew from the race over allegations of irregularities. Sok Chhun Oeung, who ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-re-elected-despite-deputys-protest-68223/
Court places more restrictions on union leader
Ath Thorn, the head of the country’s largest independent union, was placed yesterday under judicial supervision by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court a day after he joined demonstrations calling for a $177 monthly minimum wage for garment workers. Mr. Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-places-more-restrictions-on-union-leader-68225/
A busy week at court expected for union leader Ath Thorn
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court will be seeing a lot of union leader Ath Thorn next week. From next Monday through Thursday, it has summonsed the president of the country’s largest independent union to three rounds of questioning over three separate cases in which Mr. Thorn ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/a-busy-week-at-court-expected-for-union-leader-ath-thorn-67650/
Proposal aims to bring workers’ voices to negotiating table
A proposed project hopes to channel the widespread use of mobile phones among factory workers to bring the voice of the 600,000 Cambodians employed in the crucial garment sector into future wage negotiations. The project, which would collect information about working hours, conditions, wages and expenses ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/proposal-aims-to-bring-workers-voices-to-negotiating-table-67629/