News
Last Tai Yang Strikers Hoping for Resolution
Workers who were left stranded after protests at three Tai Yang Enterprises garment factories dragged on for months earlier this year were waiting for a long awaited resolution when they attended the arbitration yesterday. The 53 employees of the Kandal provincial factory, which supplies Levi’s and ...
Cambodians falling prey to perils of migrant labour
The future remains uncertain for many Cambodian workers seeking jobs in Thailand. Most feel the process of gaining employment in the country is akin to playing the lottery, with exploitation in the job placement industry rife, and legal protection scarce ...
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/316884/cambodians-falling-prey-to-perils-of-migrant-labour
Experts Put Forward Changes to Draft Agreement Protecting Maids
Officials from the government U.N. and human rights groups on Friday put forward amendments to draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) that is designed to impose safeguards for Cambodians to travel to work as maids in Malaysia. While the original draft by the Malaysian government sets out the responsibility of ...
Poipet Casino Dragging Feet on Promise
A casino in Poipet that pays wages only in Thai baht is yet to fulfil its promise to improve conditions for its 500 workers, a union representative said yesterday. Workers are still working 12-hour days – often without a break – at the Tropicana Casino, one ...
Maid Talk Premature: Ministry
The Ministry of Labour has played down reports it is close to sending domestic workers to Singapore, a country that has only recently granted foreign maids a weekly day off. The two countries’ governments had been in talks with Singapore’s Association of Employment Agencies about placing ...
Bra factory workers look to ministry for support
About 300 workers entered their sixth day of strikes yesterday at a bra factory in the capital, which manufactures lingerie supplied to Victoria’s Secret and Valentino, but their hopes of a quick resolution were dashed when a Ministry of Social Affairs official admitted he was ...
Kingdom and Qatar to form labour watchdog
Cambodia’s next step in allowing workers such as maids and builders to travel to Qatar will be to create a committee with the Arab state to ensure their safety is protected, a senior labour official said yesterday. The Senate on Wednesday supported an agreement between the ...
Senate Approves Law Allowing Cambodians to Work in Qatar
The Senate yesterday approved a law making way for Cambodians to travel to Qatar for work, an official said. The 52 senators present passed the law unanimously and without amendments, said Oum Sarith, Senate cabinet chief. The agreement lets Cambodians work in the oil-rich emirate’s service ...
Still no motion on union law
As the latest draft of Cambodia’s long-awaited trade-union law sits idly at the Council of Ministers, Ministry of Labour officials have turned to outsiders to help hasten its enactment, a union advocate said yesterday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012090458479/National-news/still-no-motion-on-union-law.html
Re-hired OFWs for HK, Brunei, Cambodia may use multiple exit clearances
Overseas Filipino workers in Hong Kong, Brunei and Cambodia who need to shuttle between these countries and the Philippines can now avail themselves of the multiple travel exit clearance (MTEC), according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). The Memorandum Circular No. 7 issued by POEA ...
Hey, waiter!
While tourism numbers in Cambodia are growing rapidly, visitors might increasingly have a hard time finding a restaurant to their liking since the country is experiencing a shortage of qualified personnel, especially waiters and chefs, accordingly to the Cambodia Restaurant Association. “The tourism industry needs at ...
Abused Workers Back Home
A maid who fled her employer after an attempted rape and was then thrown in a detention centre just two days after she gave birth was one of 26 distressed men and women who make up the latest repatriated abuse victims from Malaysia. Detained for ...
Sen David and David Boyle, P. 1
Workers Claim Police Beat Them During Factory Protest
About 10 workers were beaten by police and military police during a protest over severance payments yesterday in Kandal province, workers and union representatives said. Protests at Tai Yang Enterprises—which supplies clothing to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy—in Ang Snuol district have been ongoing ...
Cops allegedly attacked garment strikers
Police have been accused of punching and shoving garment workers from Tai Yang and Camwell factories in Kandal province as the month-long strike over bonuses continued yesterday. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said 11 people had been slightly injured after being attacked ...
Thai government reconsiders deportation
Thailand is rethinking a controversial plan to deport pregnant migrant workers from countries such as Cambodia and instead support them following widespread outrage, a Thai labour ministry official said yesterday. Last month, Thai Labor Minister Padermchai Sasomsap announced plans to send home migrant workers who were ...
US big brand boycott called for by workers
Some 100 workers, along with the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, delivered a letter yesterday to the US Embassy in Phnom Penh asking Americans to boycott clothing made by Tai Yang Enterprises. Surrounded by protesters, CCU President Rong Chhun said that the group was ...
Workers ditch factories for fields
At some point during the planting season this year, Pheap Srey Ngoun will leave her garment factory floor for a rice paddy in Cambodia’s Prey Veng province. Like many fellow garment workers she will leave her position, with permission from the factory, to lend a hand ...
Municipality Blames Trade Union for Violent Protest
The Phnom Penh Municipality issued a statement yesterday accusing the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions of violating their agreement when a garment workers’ protest on July 11 turned violent. Some 20 garment factory workers from the Tai Yang factory had marched to submit a petition to ...
Garment strikers set sights for capital again
Strikers from Kandal province’s Tai Yang and Camwell factories, which supply Levi’s and Gap, will converge on the capital again today to keep pressing for seniority bonuses, Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said. The 150 workers who remain on strikewill deliver a petition to ...
Factory workers hold out for more
Little more than a week after garment workers were granted a US$10 monthly increase in allowances and bonuses, thousands of workers at a number of factories joined strikes with a clear message yesterday: they need more. Workers rallied outside factory gates and some marched to the ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072057529/National-news/workers-hold-out-for-more.html
Japanese companies face domestic employee shortage
Japanese companies are facing a shortage of skilled workers which is hindering progress in Japanese-owned electronic factories, the Japanese Business Association of Cambodia (JBAC) said. The statement comes after the Asian Development Bank said in April that a shortage of skilled workers would continue to hinder ...
Adidas Denies Allegations of Low Wages for Factory Workers
German sports brand Adidas yesterday denied allegations that its Cambodian factory, which produces Olympic merchandise, was not paying workers a sustainable living wage. The London Organizing Committee for the 2012 Olympic Games (Locog) said on Sunday it would investigate claims that Adidas has violated its agreement ...
Unions urge contract action
Unions will urge the Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) to crack down on employers using fixed-term contracts to threaten workers, they said yesterday. ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071757462/National-news/unions-urge-contract-action.html
Olympic Organizing Committee to Investigate Cambodian Factory
The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog) plans to investigate allegations that a Cambodian factory producing Olympic merchandise for Adidas is not paying workers a sustainable living wage, a spokesman for Locog said yesterday. The investigation is a response to an article published Saturday ...