ពលកម្ម
Unionists cry foul over rejection
K-Cement workers who were told they could not form a company-wide union because their workplaces were “separate” entities have now had their application to register individual unions rejected by the Ministry of Labour, union leaders said yesterday. Sok Kin, vice president of the Building and Woodworkers ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020161139/National/unionists-cry-foul-over-rejection.html
MPs Urge Child Labor Action
A group of opposition lawmakers have written to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen urging action against a sugar factory owned by a ruling party official accused of exploiting child labor and grabbing land from villagers. Six Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) parliamentarians sent a letter dated Jan. ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/children-01292013174957.html
Union warns of general strike if wage hike too small
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions warned Thursday of a general strike if proposed increases in monthly salaries are too small. “Cambodia will have a big strike exploding across all clothing and footwear factories if minimum wages are raised by only 10 percent from the basic $61,” ...
Government Tells Unions to Agree on Minimum Wage Demands
The government on Monday requested that manufacturers look at raising the minimum wage for garment workers, but only after divided trade unions agree on what that wage should be. “After discussions, those present at the meeting agree in principle to discuss raising the minimum wage ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/government-tells-unions-to-agree-on-minimum-wage-demands-8193/
Should Minimum Wage Be Market Driven or Government-Dictated?
Manufacturers and unions aligned with the ruling CPP yesterday said the current labor shortage inside the garment industry would act as an incentive for employers to increase salaries, and that there was no need for the government to impose a new minimum wage. During a meeting ...
Cambodia’s garment workers to get pay rise for 2013
Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) on Monday agreed to increase salaries for the workers in the kingdom’s garment and footwear industries, according to a press release after a closed door meeting. The meeting was attended by Minister of Social Affairs Ith Samheng, Minister of Labor ...
http://www.nzweek.com/world/cambodias-garment-workers-to-get-pay-rise-for-2013-43866/
Masseuses protest sackings
Noise from a loudspeaker yesterday cut through the usual peace on street 282 in Phnom Penh’s Beoung Keng Kang 1 neighbourhood, as five former massage workers at upscale spa Aziadee protested the sudden termination of their contracts. Waving posters in front of the shop ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011760832/National/masseuses-protest-sackings.html
Labor Dispute Cases Rise in Garment, Footwear Industry
The Arbitration Council heard about 230 collective labor disputes in the garment and footwear industry involving approximately 98,000 workers in 2012, a 38 percent increase from 2011, which saw 161 cases handled, according to the council. Y Samphy, training and communications manager for the council’s Arbitration ...
Scrap short-term contracts: CCU
Fixed-duration contracts (FDCs) are in the sights of Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun, who yesterday urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to outlaw their use in the garment and footwear industries. Chhun said the cancellation of such contracts would provide better conditions and job security ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/scrap-short-term-contracts-ccu.html
Fired Phone Company Workers File Complaint
One of Cambodia’s most active unions has filed a complaint against a Thai mobile phone provider, claiming it laid off more than 50 staff members without warning and without compensation. The complaint was filed with the Ministry of Labor against Mfone, a company that belongs to ...
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/fired-phone-company-workers-file-complaint/1579895.html
Union sues Mfone director for violating labor law
Free Trade Union of Workers of Cambodia said Tuesday it had sued the director of Thailand’s Mfone Co Ltd for not respecting local labor laws. In a letter issued Tuesday to the Department of Labor Disputes, the union’s deputy secretary general Sam Srey Mom accused Mfone ...
Cambodia's Free Trade Union offers minimum wage plan
In the latest bid for an increase in garment-industry wages, Free Trade Union (FTU) president Chea Mony yesterday called on the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to come to the table and discuss a $120-per-month minimum wage. A few days after Cambodian Confederation of Unions ...
Cambodia's unions cry foul on fainting figures
Union reps and government officials are offering significantly different – if both substantial – numbers in their year-end tallies of garment workers who fainted on the job in 2012. The Free Trade Union yesterday announced that the number of workers to faint in factories rose to ...
Some 1,686 workers faint in Cambodia in 2012: official report
Approximately 1,686 workers in garment and shoe factories got fainted last year due mainly to overwork, poor health, exposure to chemical substances, and hysteria, a Cambodian labor official said Wednesday. Pok Vanthath, vice-chief of the Labor Ministry’s vocational training department, said the mass fainting incidents had ...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-01/02/c_132076705.htm
Factory worker wages to be re-examined
Amid threats of another mass strike in the thriving garment sector, the Ministry of Social Affairs has called a meeting with the industry’s leading players to discuss union demands for a $150-per-month minimum wage, a letter obtained yesterday reveals. At the behest of Prime Minister Hun ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010260589/National/factory-worker-wages-to-be-re-examined.html
Garment Workers Protest for Higher Wages at Freedom Park
More than 200 garment workers gathered at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park yesterday to protest for higher wages before marching to Wat Botum Park and the National Assembly. The workers from three factories – Cambo Handsome, Best One and Yang Fong – are requesting $150 as their ...
Union Delivers Leaflets Urging Garment Worker Strike
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU) is distributing 10,000 leaflets to garment workers across Phnom Penh, urging them to join a strike on Sunday, CCU officials said yesterday. “We would like to invite them to join us to demand for an increase if the base ...
Illegal Cambodian Workers in Thailand Could Be Deported
Thailand is warning it will expel 1.5 million illegal workers from the country, a move that could affect around 160,000 Cambodians. Rights workers in Cambodia say the migrant laborers deserve assistance from both Thai and Cambodian authorities to help them work and travel legally. ...
Unions to Protest Court Ruling in Triple Shooting
Union leaders are planning a demonstration in January to protest the Svay Rieng Provincial Court’s decision last week to drop charges against the former Bavet City governor, Chhouk Bundith, who was the chief suspect in the shooting of three garment factory workers during a violent ...
Job losses ‘discrimination’
More than 60 union leaders lost their jobs at garment factories in the past nine months for trying to unionise co-workers, their representatives claimed yesterday. Fourteen members of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions endured threats, discrimination and ultimately a message they were no longer welcome ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2012121960367/National/job-losses-discrimination.html
Hun Sen Warns of Labor Shortage, Praises Japanese Investment
Cambodia is facing a grave labor shortage due to the large number of workers seeking jobs in Thailand, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday, urging employers to help reduce illegal migration by improving working conditions at home. Mr. Hun Sen also applauded growing Japanese investment in ...
Strikers know when to fold 'em
More than 300 workers from the Tropicana Casino and resort in Banteay Meanchey provinces’s Poipet town obeyed a court order to end striking and return to work yesterday and official said. Hong Prakorb, a provincial official for the Labour Ministry said more than 200 workers ...
In Garment Sector, a Labor Movement Divided
There was so much noise blasting from the loudspeakers that the occasional rallying cry from striking workers at the demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district last week could hardly be heard. One 2-meter high stack of amplifiers had been set up outside the Nex-T factory and ...
Companies Urged to Respect Labor Standards
Respecting labor standards in Cambodian factories will benefit the garment manufacturing industry in the long-run as more international brands will be tempted to source from the country, labor experts said yesterday at a round-table discussion in Phnom Penh. ...