News
PM calls for halt to ‘illegal’ protests
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday called on labour unions to immediately stop organising demonstrations and strikes to “illegally” demand benefits from factory owners. He said such actions could spin out of hand and force around two-thirds of the Kingdom’s factories, approximately 800 of the ...
Long Kimmarita
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/pm-calls-halt-illegal-protests
About 1,000 migrants sent home
About 1,000 Cambodians allegedly working illegally in Thailand were arrested and deported after the Thai government declared an end to a grace period for labourers, a member of the official receiving committee at the border in Poipet said Monday. ...
Khouth Sophak Chakrya
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/about-1000-migrants-sent-home
Unions, GMAC at the table
Employer representatives and trade unions sat down across from each other for the first time yesterday for head-to-head negotiations over next year’s garment sector minimum wage, with factory owners reluctantly offering a small $2 increase to their earlier proposal of $144.20. ...
Lay Samean and Ananth Baliga
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-gmac-table
Gov’t wants only $8 wage increase
The government revealed its favored figure for the new garment and footwear industry minimum wage in 2017 during a Technical Working Group meeting on Friday, telling attendees that they believed it should be raised by about $8 per month – representing only a five percent ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/29609/gov---t-wants-only--8-wage-increase/
Unions tout ‘living wage’ ahead of minimum wage talks
Unions meeting on Friday arrived at an estimated cost-of-living salary for garment workers ahead of minimum wage talks, one remarkably similar to the monthly wage they’ve demanded two years running, though suggested the final number they push for will be higher. ...
Sen David and Erin Handley
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-tout-living-wage-ahead-minimum-wage-talks
Unions slam Rainsy’s EU plan
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy has been in hot water since he told an EU parliamentary meeting on July 13 that he wanted them to consider decreasing garment imports from Cambodia in the hope it would pressure Prime Minister Hun Sen and his government into complying ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/27429/unions-slam-rainsy---s-eu-plan/
Court questions union leader over forgery
Prominent union leader Pav Sina was questioned in court on Thursday about a forgery and disinformation complaint filed against him by a garment factory, a charge he rejected as being an invention meant to stall attempts by workers to unionize. ...
Khy Sovuthy
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-questions-union-leader-over-forgery-115476/
Protest to greet Union Law vote
As the National Assembly finally comes face to face with the draft union law today, it is unclear whether opposition lawmakers will vote against the contentious legislation. Independent trade unions, meanwhile, are planning a protest outside parliament. ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/protest-greet-union-law-vote
Factory precautions urged as temps rise
The Ministry of Labour has urged the garment industry to take adequate health and safety measures to compensate for what they say is already an unusually hot dry season. ...
Bun Sengkong and Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-precautions-urged-temps-rise
Labor leader wants unionists’ charges dropped
A prosecutor at the Kompong Speu Provincial Court said on Wednesday that charges would stand against five union officials who were released on bail last month after they were arrested during a brawl with a rival association, despite calls by a prominent labor leader to ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-leader-wants-unionists-charges-dropped-108658/
Takeo factory dispute negotiations prove fruitless
Unionists, factory representatives and Labor Ministry officials on Thursday failed to find a solution for about 1,600 employees of a garment factory in Takeo province who were fired for striking last month, and the case will be passed along to the Arbitration Council, a ministry ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/takeo-factory-dispute-negotiations-prove-fruitless-100231/
Takeo garment workers protest at Ministry of Labour
More than 300 garment workers from Takeo province protested in front of the Ministry of Labour yesterday, following two weeks of strikes over working conditions.Workers requested intervention from the ministry over the dismissal of 1,000 striking workers as well as 13 demands including lunch money, ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/takeo-garment-workers-protest-ministry-labour
1,600 fired garment workers demand jobs back after strike
About 100 garment workers from a factory in Takeo province that supplies German sports brands Puma and Adidas protested in front of the Labor Ministry Wednesday to demand the reinstatement of about 1,600 staff fired last month for striking over inadequate benefits. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/1600-fired-garment-workers-demand-jobs-back-after-strike-100064/
Garment unions say strike threat is on table
A coalition of garment industry unions reiterated warnings yesterday that they will launch nationwide strikes calling for better conditions if Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng refuses to negotiate on previous demands. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-unions-say-strike-threat-table
Unions make new demands as factories focus on productivity
Following the announcement earlier this month that the monthly minimum wage in the garment sector will be raised from $128 to $140 next year, eight unions representing factory workers issued a list of 13 demands on Tuesday, threatening protests if their requests go ignored. ...
Peter Ford and Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-make-new-demands-as-factories-focus-on-productivity-97876/
Garment unions weigh protests
Garment workers unions unhappy with next year’s recently announced $140 minimum wage for the sector will meet this week to determine whether or not to hold demonstrations to protest the disappointingly low figure.The unions were pushing for $160 a month when the government announced the ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-unions-weigh-protests
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/
Cambodian garment factory workers demonstrate for subsidies
At least 500 workers from three garment factories in Cambodia demonstrated on Tuesday outside the Labor Ministry in the capital Phnom Penh, demanding that government officials intervene in their quest for better working conditions and food and transportation subsidies. ...
Government announces start of garment sector wage talks
The Labor Ministry on Friday announced that formal negotiations to set a new minimum wage for the country’s all-important garment sector—now at $128 a month—will begin in July, reviving the same schedule for talks it used with unions and employers for the first time last ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/government-announces-start-of-garment-sector-wage-talks-85550/
Ministry hits back over Union law
The Ministry of Labor issued a statement Friday claiming that the controversial draft Trade Union Law is aimed at protecting the rights of workers, after unions announced they would write to the ministry, the National Assembly and the European Union next week calling for the ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-hits-back-over-union-law-84636/
Union leader lodges complaints over alleged death threat
Union leader Pav Sina on Monday filed a complaint with the Interior Ministry after an administrator at a Chinese-owned window factory in Svay Rieng province allegedly told three other members of his union that some factory owners were pooling money in order to have Mr. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-lodges-complaints-over-alleged-death-threat-78559/
Bavet factory ordered to close after mass faintings
The Svay Rieng provincial labor department on Monday ordered a Taiwanese-owned garment factory to temporarily close and improve its ventilation after more than 100 workers collapsed in two separate mass faintings in recent days. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bavet-factory-ordered-to-close-after-mass-faintings-78102/
Unions warn of strikes over gov’t rejection of new branch
A group of eight trade unions Thursday said the government has turned down every one of their applications to form local branches at the country’s garment factories since early last year and threatened mass strikes if the rejections continue. At a press conference in Phnom Penh, ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-warn-of-strikes-over-govt-rejection-of-new-branches-77031/
Union complains of spate of illegal garment factory firings
Union leader Pav Sina on Tuesday said garment factories around the country illegally fired dozens of his local representatives last year, far more than in 2013, and urged the government to help get their jobs back. Mr. Sina’s Collective Union of Movement of Workers (CUMW) is ...