ពលកម្ម
Factories still skimping: ILO
Cambodia’s garment exports exceeded US$1 billion during the first quarter of 2012, yet many factories are failing to pay workers proper maternity leave benefits or address issues of fainting, a labour report says. The International Labour Organization-Better Factories Cambodia’s Twenty Eighth Synthesis Report on Working Conditions ...
Despite Maid Abuses, Cambodia Retains Trafficking Ranking
Cambodia held on to its Tier 2 ranking for the third straight year in the U.S. State Depart- ments latest global Trafficking in Persons Report, which praised the country for a rise in prosecutions, but criticized the country over a new sub-decree on migrant labor. In ...
Report Shows Rise in Garment Labor Disputes
Increasing discrimination by factories against unions and continued poor wages in Cambodia’s garment sector have resulted in a rise in the number of worker protests, according to a report released yesterday by the International Labor Organization (ILO). According to its periodic synthesis report on working ...
Illegal Fishing, Molotov Cocktails, A Daring Escape
The State Department on Tuesday cited abuses in Thailand’s huge fishing industry as part of an annual worldwide report on Trafficking in Persons. The report noted that men from Cambodia and Myanmar, also known as Burma, are trafficked aboard Thai ships and forced to work ...
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/20/155048186/illegal-fishing-molotov-cocktails-a-daring-escape
Confined To A Thai Fishing Boat, For Three Years
Cambodian Vannak Prum’s destiny changed in a dirt-road town called Malai. It’s a Cambodian outpost on the border with Thailand that is known for its involvement in the trafficking of human beings. Prum arrived in Malai seven years ago searching for work. His wife was pregnant, ...
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155045295/confined-to-a-thai-fishing-boat-for-three-years
Arbitrator Rules On Future of Gold Tower 42
Arbitrators in Seoul have ruled that the company contracted to build the $240 million Gold Tower 42 project in Phnom Penh was in breach of contract after failing to raise funds to finish the project, which resulted in work stopping almost two years ago, a ...
Women flee from Thai karaoke parlor slavery
Two Cambodian women escaped Thailand on Friday a week after being trafficked across the border and sold into sex slavery in a Thai karaoke parlour, according to the rights group Adhoc and Anti-Human Trafficking and Juvenile Protection officials. Tan Kimrany, an officer for Adhoc’s Women’s Rights ...
Organizations Highlight Plight of Child Laborers
One and a half million children still toil as laborers in Cambodia’s fisheries, brick factories, agricultural plantations and construction sites, government officials said yesterday at an event held at Phnom Penh’s Wat Botum ahead of World Day Against Child Labor on Tuesday. The government has set ...
Trafficked Laborers Returned From Malaysia
Twelve Cambodians were repatriated Friday after being illegally trafficked to work as fishermen and maids in Malaysia, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. ...
Visits short for jailed Boeung Kak spouses
Boeung Kak villager Heng Tong has seen his wife, Heng Mom, for a total of 15 minutes since she was sent to Prey Sar prison after a three-hour trial on May 24. He has been granted three visits and has had to bring money to pay ...
SL factory strikes to slow Cambodian garment industry
A sharp increase in garment factory strikes this year has raised eyebrows among industry insiders, who say the disputes could lead to a decrease in year-on-year export growth. The Arbitration Council, which hears work-related disputes such as factory strikes, saw claims nearly double during the first ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012060756642/Business/strikes-hit-garment-boom.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 ...
Third party canteens favoured by GMAC
The Chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, Van Sou Ieng, said that even if nutrition is an important factor in productivity, it should not the sole responsibility of the factory owner. “The deduction that the nutrition will automatically improve productivity is not necessarily true. ...
After Threats to Cut Pay, Garment Workers Strike
Nearly 2,000 workers at the Gawon Apparel Co. garment factory in Kandal province’s Takhmao City protested in front of the factory yesterday after they were informed that they would lose pay for any days missed during the commune election, which takes place Sunday, union representatives ...
Boeung Kak takes case to Assembly
About 200 people, including activist monk Loun Savath, rallied outside the National Assembly in Phnom Penh yesterday in support of the 13 Boeung Kak women sentenced to prison in a three-hour trial last Thursday. Supporters of the women, including villagers, unions and human rights groups, called ...
Radio Competition Aims To Teach Labor Law
A radio competition organized by the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia will enable garment workers to showcase their knowledge and teach the public about the country’s Labor Law, an ILO representative said yesterday. “The objective is not only to allow workers to express their ...
Workers at Honda Plant Given Back Their Jobs
A factory in Phnom Penh that assembles motorcycles for Honda decided on Friday to reinstate four workers who had been fired in December for creating a new trade union. About 300 workers at the Honda NCX Company in Pur Senchey district had been on strike since ...
Honda Factory Workers Strike To Reinstate Union Officials
About 300 workers from a Phnom Penh factory that assembles Honda motorcycles went on strike yesterday to rally for the reinstatement of their union representatives, in accordance with an order by the Arbitration Council, union representatives said yesterday. Yoeurng Sopheara, a legal officer at Cambodia Labor ...
Australian Gov’t Ordered Railway Investigation
The Australian government yesterday said it has been aware of poor working conditions and inappropriate surveying methods used on Cambodia’s railway rehabilitation project since February and had ordered that the project’s partners investigate the matters. “The Australian Government was alerted to possible concerns about workplace health ...
Ministry Meets Striking Union Representatives
Ministry of Social Affairs officials yesterday conducted a meeting between the owners of a factory, which produces clothing for H&M, Gap and Levi Strauss, and its workers, but threatened to file a complaint against the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU), union representatives ...
Women in upper union positions vital
Female union leaders in the garment industry – where women constitute 90 per cent of the work force – are effective at bargaining for better working conditions, but their voices aren’t being heard in a union landscape dominated by men, a labour expert said yesterday. Veasna ...
Svay Rieng Court Questions Victims in SEZ Shooting Case
The Svay Rieng Provincial Court on Friday questioned three female factory workers who were shot, allegedly by Bavet City Governor Chhouk Bundith, during a protest inside a special economic zone (SEZ) in February, the plaintiffs said. More than 20 union leaders and labor activists also gathered ...
Growing Number of Strikes Worries Clothing Brands
Major clothing brands sourcing from Cambodia’s garment factories have expressed concern about the growing number of strikes in the country and called for the renewal of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) aimed at preventing strikes, a representative from the International Labor Organization (ILO) said yesterday. ...
Brands proving free lunches might exist
Major international garment and shoe brands have expressed interest in funding a food program that would feed Cambodian factory workers lunches in an effort to improve health and productivity, a labour advocate said on Wednesday. Dave Welsh, country director of the American Center for International Labor ...