News
Gov’t Unveils Legal Plan to Break Garment Industry Strike
As mass demonstrations by garment factory workers continued Monday, the government laid out plans to bring an end to the labor unrest within the next three days, including suing union leaders in the courts and mobilizing security forces to take unspecified action. Signed by Council ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-unveils-legal-plan-to-break-garment-industry-strike-49763/
H&M may raise prices to pay workers
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, ...
Daniel de Carteret and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/hm-may-raise-prices-pay-workers
Food-price hike hits workers
The price of food spiked this month, and Cambodia’s low-paid garment workers are feeling the effects. Meat, vegetables, toothbrushes, beauty accessories and even the plastic bags they get packed in have all seen a sharp bump up in price this month, some items by as much ...
Daniel de Carteret and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/food-price-hike-hits-workers
At Embattled Factory, an Unmovable Manager
In an industry rife with labor strikes, the workers at the SL Garment Factory in recent months have been strident, and sometimes violent, in their efforts to have their demands for better working conditions met by factory bosses. Tuesday’s clash with police near Phnom Penh’s Stung ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/at-embattled-factory-an-unmovable-manager-46900/
Rise of the bureaucrats
When the ruling Cambodian People’s Party promised civil servants a pay rise earlier this year, some suggested it was also trying to give them a reason to vote for it in July’s national election. The 20 per cent increase came amid the opposition Cambodia National Rescue ...
Daniel Pye and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/rise-bureaucrats
Garment exports up, margins down
Despite concerns that political uncertainty would be a drag on the economy, Cambodia’s garment exports continued on an upward trend in the first nine months of the year, the latest data show. Though volume increased, factory profit margins were squeezed due to labour disputes and demands ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/garment-exports-margins-down
SL Garment Protesters Gain Little From Talks at Labor Ministry
A two-day meeting between union leaders, senior government officials and representatives of the SL Garment Factory failed Tuesday to reach a solution for factory workers, who have been on strike since early August and on Monday demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom ...
Ben Woods and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sl-garment-protesters-gain-little-from-talks-at-labor-ministry-45708/
Monitor, GMAC at odds over plan
The head of the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program said yesterday that consultations on its new public-disclosure initiative have been going on for more than a year, contrary to claims by a garment factory representative who characterised the process as hasty. Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser ...
Daniel de Carteret and May Kunmakara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/monitor-gmac-odds-over-plan
Union wary of possible crackdown
Preparing for a demonstration expected to draw thousands of garment workers this morning, Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), said yesterday that he feared the possibility of a heavy-handed military police response. About 4,000 workers gathered at SL ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-wary-possible-crackdown
Minimum wage panel sets a meet
A joint committee designed to bring about wage increases in the garment sector will meet for the first time on Friday, a Ministry of Social Affairs letter obtained yesterday states. Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union, said he believed ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minimum-wage-panel-sets-meet
Cambodian garment workers rally over jobs
Around 4000 Cambodian garment workers are protesting after a factory supplying global brands including Gap and H&M fired hundreds of their colleagues for striking over conditions. Union leaders said the Singapore-owned SL Garment Processing factory fired 720 workers on Wednesday while more than 5000 others were ...
MSN NZ News Staff
http://news.msn.co.nz/worldnews/8718648/cambodian-garment-workers-rally-over-jobs
Strikers descend on ministry
Shouting their demands and trying to force their way through the gate, thousands of striking garment workers rallied in front of the Ministry of Social Affairs to no avail yesterday. The strikes came the morning after management posted a notice saying some 6,000 striking workers ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strikers-descend-ministry
Factory production sluggish
In the wake of last month’s election, production levels at Cambodian garment factories are still below the norm as lingering fears of political unrest keep workers at home and away from the capital. Shrugged off at the outset as a natural byproduct of the election that ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/factory-production-sluggish
Collapses raise concerns over emergency training
When a bridge and kiosk collapsed into a pond at a Phnom Penh garment factory last month, injuring more than 20 workers, the Prime Minister’s Bodyguard Unit and police rushed to scour the murky water for survivors. Some hours later, those forces remained unsure whether any ...
Factory Workers Demand Release of Eight After Protest
About 1,000 garment workers on Wednesday demonstrated outside Kompong Speu Provincial Court calling for the release of eight people arrested during a protest this week over wages at a factory supplying U.S. brand Nike, a union official said. Fighting between the workers on Monday displayed ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-workers-demand-release-of-eight-held-after-protest-29318/
Court takes another crack at Bandith case
Unions representing more than 15,000 members have called for justice for three women ahead of round two of legal action against their alleged shooter, deposed Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith. Bandith, who is accused of shooting the three workers during a protest at a factory in ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065718/National/court-takes-another-crack-at-bandith-case.html
ILO Says Fire Safety Measures Lacking in Garment Sector
Cambodia’s garment industry is experiencing a worrying rise in fire safety violations as factories struggle to cope with a sharp increase in the number of orders they are receiving, the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) said in a report on Thursday. The ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ilo-says-fire-safety-measures-lacking-in-garment-sector-18628/
Room for compromise in wage debate: official
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia and unions both need to compromise further to secure a “proper wage” for garment workers whose lives are hampered by their current $61 minimum wage, a Ministry of Social Affairs official overseeing wage negotiations said yesterday. “The government needs the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013030661779/National/room-for-compromise-in-wage-debate-official.html
Factory Wants $200,000 From Union Members After Strikes
Representatives of the Golden Gain Shoe factory yesterday demanded in court that six members of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU) pay $200,000 in compensation for organizing a week of strikes at the factory. Factory management has accused the leader of the factory’s ...
Re-charge Bandith: unionists
Unionists yesterday said they would urge international organisations and buyers to pressure the government to re-charge and arrest the former Bavet town governor accused of shooting three garment workers and to release two men imprisoned for the murder of unionist Chea Vichea. In December, charges ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011560784/National/re-charge-bandith-unionists.html
Strike wounds slow to heal
More than 70 garment workers who claim they were sacked after a nationwide workers’ strike in September, 2010 are still waiting to be reinstated, Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), has told the Post. Thorn claimed on Tuesday about ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070557227/National-news/strike-wounds-slow-to-heal.html
Union out of loop in MoU negotiations
The garment industry could be close to renewing an industrial relations memorandum of understanding, but an independent union believes it is being edged out of negotiations because it opposes the use of short-term and fixed-duration contracts. Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labour Confederation, said yesterday ...
Banners versus batons
Police are accused of breaking a 21-year-old woman’s nose and injuring two other women as about 900 workers marched from the Win Shing-tex Cambodia garment factory in the capital’s Por Sen Chey district yesterday. San Sopha said, adding he would file a complaint against the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012032855291/National-news/banners-versus-batons.html