PM urges factories to up wages

As the lure of Thailand grows increasingly attractive for cash-strapped and under-employed Cambodians, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday made a public appeal for workers to stay in the country, simultaneously urging the Cambodian market to up its competitive edge. In a speech at the inauguration of a new administrative building for the Ministry of Labour, Hun Sen admonished employers, and garment manufacturers in particular, to make the domestic market more attractive to workers, citing Cambodia’s ongoing labour shortage. “I think that if [the garment industry] gave them higher wages, the workers would like going to work,” the prime minister said. … Meanwhile, in neighbouring Thailand, despite looming mass deportations, more than 50,000 Cambodians have successfully registered as legal migrant workers, making themselves eligible for a recently instated 300 baht daily minimum wage – a salary that comes to just under $300 a month, or more than three-and-a-half times the basic salary of a Cambodian garment worker including mandatory bonuses and allowances. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/pm-urges-factories-to-up-wages.html