News
Svay Rieng victims called back to court
Svay Rieng Provincial Court has summonsed the three female workers wounded during a protest at Kao Ve Garment Factory in Manhattan Special Economic Zone for one more round of questioning before the case against the former Bavet city governor is sent for trial. ...
Union Bashes Wage Hike, Ponders National Strike
The Free Trade Union (FTU) is unhappy with the size of the raise agreed to this week by manufacturers for garment workers and said it would meet next week to decide whether to hold a nationwide strike in August for a larger increase, said FTU ...
Union Official Forced to Sign ‘Confession’
A union representative who was beaten and detained by police during a protest Wednesday was released after being forced to sign a statement taking responsibility for starting a fight with authorities, union officials said yesterday. A bloodied Rong Panha, a representative of the Cambodian Alliance of ...
Ministry, factories strike deal
About 600,000 workers in the lucrative garment and footwear industries, roughly 95 per cent of the sector’s work force, will soon take home an extra US$10 a month, the Ministry of Labour said yesterday. Barely an hour after a protest involving garment workers at the capital’s ...
Union Representative Beaten, Arrested by Police
A union representative was beaten with electric batons and arrested by police in Phnom Penh yesterday after more than 20 garment workers marched to submit a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Cabinet. The petitioners, workers at the Tai Yang garment factory who belong to the ...
Bloody crackdown on garment strike in Phnom Penh
A union employee representing striking workers from a factory that supplies Levi’s and Gap was left a bloodied mess near Wat Botum yesterday after police allegedly attacked him. According to rights groups, police set upon Long Panha, of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), who ...
Union boss accused of strike incitement
The president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions has been summonsed to Kandal Provincial Court to answer incitement and defamation allegations levied against her by the owner of the strike-plagued Tai Yang Enterprise factories. The court complaint comes ahead of major negotiations today in the ...
Migrants to Korea jump
More Cambodian migrant workers headed to South Korea in the first half of this year than in all of 2011, data from the Ministry of Labour shows. A suspension on Vietnamese migration, coupled with an improving Korean economy, primarily accounted for the jump, officials say. Working ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071057315/Business/migrants-to-korea-jump.html
Strikers move protest to Phnom Penh
Thousands of workers from Tai Yang Enterprise, a supplier for major brands including Levis and the Gap, will move their nearly three-week-old strike from their factory in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district to Freedom Park in Phnom Penh tomorrow in order to bring their petition ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071057320/National-news/strikers-move-to-phnom-penh.html
Strike will continue for thousands
Thousands of workers from the Tai Yang Enterprise garment factories, which supply major US brands Levis and Gap, have vowed to continue a two-week strike today after negotiations between the company, union and Labour Ministry officials broke down on Friday. “The minister did not protect ...
Migrant abuse claims skyrocket five fold
Complaints of rights violations of migrant workers had increased more than 500 per cent in the first four months of 2012 compared with the same period last year, rights group Adhoc said yesterday. The number of individual victims of rights violations, mainly migrant workers in Malaysia ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657258/National-news/migrant-abuse-claims-mount.html
Long-Running Protest Still Without Resolution
About 2,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, Gap and Old Navy were stopped by security forces yesterday as they attempted to march from Kandal province to the Ministry of Labor to protest for severance payments and additional benefits. Protests at ...
Factory Owners Agree to Provide More Benefits
Garment factory owners have agreed to provide workers with an additional $9 in monthly benefits for transportation, housing and attendance in order to reduce growing protests in the sector, Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) officials said yesterday. “We will provide $3 in attendance bonuses and ...
Unions reject bonus bargain
Union leaders yesterday rejected a proposal from Cambodian garment makers to provide US$9 a month for a worker’s housing and transport fees, demanding an additional $1. The benefits were announced last week after unions said they would lead a large-scale protest ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657244/Business/unions-reject-bonus-bargain.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
3,000 Factory Workers Block Road; Protests Set to Continue
About 3,000 workers at a factory supplying clothes to U.S. brands Levi Strauss and Old Navy blocked traffic for nearly five hours yesterday on National Road 4 in Kandal province, as part of a protest for more benefits and severance pay, protesters and police said. Protests ...
Road blocked as strike escalates
Thousands of workers from factories owned by Tai Yang Enterprise in Kandal province’s Ang Snuol district blocked National Road 4 for more than seven hours yesterday to push the company to meet their demands. May Sopheaktra said workers decided to block the road after the companytried ...
Workers Strike at Factory Supplying US Brands
Roughly 4,000 garment workers at a factory supplying clothes for U.S. brands Gap, Levi Strauss and Old Navy went on strike yesterday and threatened to march in Phnom Penh on Thursday to demonstrate against poor pay. The demonstration took place at Tai Yang Enterprises in Kandal ...
CCU threatens capital march
Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun threatened yesterday to lead a march of more than 3,000 striking garment workers from Kandal province to the capital on Thursday if their employer refuses to meet their demands. “[Workers] have already made commitments with me to march to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070357166/National-news/ccu-threatens-march.html
Migrant abuse trending up
Human rights group Adhoc released a report on the state of Cambodian migrant workers yesterday, saying that tales of abuse from migrant workers and their families have increased five-fold compared to the same period last year. Seventy per cent of this year’s 141 complaints concerned domestic ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061556814/National-news/migrant-abuse-trending-up.html
Migrants stuffed into two homes
More than 100 Cambodian migrant workers were discovered in rented houses this week near Rong Kleu market in Thailand’s Sakaeo province, officials said yesterday. Banteay Meanchey provincial spokesman Ouk Keo Ratanak said Thai authorites found the workers on Wednesday crammed into two houses, and sent them ...
Court to Question SEZ Shooting Witnesses Today
The Svay Rieng Provincial Court is scheduled to question two witnesses today over the shooting of three workers at a special economic zone (SEZ) on Feb. 20, investigating Judge Pech Chhoeut said yesterday. “We will question two more witnesses on Thursday,” Judge Chhoeut said. ...
Maids’ families seek answers
The families of six maids from Kampong Chhnang province who left to work in Malaysia have filed complaints with human rights group Adhoc after losing contact with the women for more than two years, rights workers said yesterday. Soum Chankea, Adhoc’s provincial co-ordinator, said the complaints ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061456795/National-news/maids-families-seek-answers.html
Maids to Saudi Arabia denied
Both the government and the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies yesterday denied media reports that Cambodia and Vietnam will provide domestic workers to Saudi Arabia. Citing Saudi Arabian newspapers, the news website Emirates 24/7 reported yesterday that Cambodia and Vietnam had agreed to send maids to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012061356764/National-news/maids-to-saudi-arabia-denied.html