ពលកម្ម
Tai Yang boss refutes name change allegations
Garment worker Ba Chhorvorn stands in the sweltering heat inside the small concrete brick room she calls home in Kandal province. Across the road is her workplace, a supplier to Levi’s and Gap, which her boss describes as the “five-star hotel of garment factories”. Worlds apart but ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012071757465/National-news/tai-yang-protest.html
Rival unions’ workers displeased with pact
More than 100 Free Trade Union of Cambodia supporters gathered in front of the union’s office to express their discontent with a deal struck between the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union and their employer, Puma supplier Thai Pore Garment Manufacturing, FTU officials said ...
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
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 ...
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 ...
Manufacturers Raise Garment Workers’ Pay
Manufacturers in Cambodia yesterday agreed to increase the monthly wage of garment workers by $7 per month by providing them with additional allowances for transportation and housing, bringing the minimum wage packet taken home every month to $73. The raise occurred as the number of strikes ...
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
Clash thwarts union’s march
Police clashed with strikers as thousands of garment workers from factories that sell to Levi’s and Gap were blocked as they marched from Kandal province towards the capital yesterday, union representatives said. The 4,000-strong group’s march, as threatened by Cambodian Confederation of Trade Unions president Rong ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070657253/National-news/clash-thwarts-unions-march.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
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
Young chief vs the system
Tek Nim is well versed in dealing with adversity. In year nine, she dropped out of school, began working on the family farm and finally became resigned to the belief that her brightest prospect was to leave Omlaing commune, in Kampong Speu province’s Thpong district, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012070357164/National-news/young-chief-vs-the-system.html
4000 Garment Workers Protest Over Severance Pay
Two garment workers were injured yesterday during a factory protest in Kandal province when they clashed with 50 police and military police, a union representative said. About 4,000 garment workers of Tai Yang Enterprises in Ang Snuol district held a protest to demand their severance payments ...
Free Trade Union breaks from ally
Free Trade Union president Chea Mony has announced that his union will leave the Cambodian Confederation of Unions and sever all ties with its long-time ally, the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association. In a letter to Minister of Labour Vong Sauth, dated June 27 and obtained by ...
Garment Worker Demonstrations Pay Dividends
At the M&V International Manufacturing Factory in Kompong Chhnang province last week, 5,000 workers filed through the gates, sat behind their neat rows of sewing machines and refused to work. A year earlier, hundreds of female workers had fainted at the factory after complaining of ...
Maid’s Death Believed Linked to Abuse
A Cambodian maid who recently returned home from work in Malaysia fell ill and died over the weekend, highlighting ongoing concerns over the treatment of impoverished Southeast Asian women who seek work abroad but are often abused by their employers. Kuy Lyda, 17, died at a ...
Sok Serey
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/maid-06252012155226.html
ILO Releases its Report in World Day Against Child Labor
During the celebration of world day against child labor, ILO also released its message about the situation of child labor in Cambodia. June 12th is a very important day for all of us, ILO said, adding that we recognize efforts made to promote children’s rights for the children of this country, and share ...
The Southeast Asia Weekly, P. 10
http://thesoutheastasiaweekly.com/
U.S. Supports Strengthening High-Level Legal Networks in ASEAN
Over 70 judges and justice ministry officials from throughout ASEAN gathered at a U.S.-supported ASEAN legal and judicial cooperation workshop in Cambodia this week for an unprecedented exchange of ideas on the rule of law in the ASEAN region. Representatives from the ASEAN Senior Law Officials Meeting (ASLOM), ASEAN Member State judicial bodies, and the ASEAN ...
Cambodian Confederation Union denied recognition again
The Cambodian Confederation of Unions has been shot down again in its bid for formal recognition as a trade union confederation, president Rong Chhun said yesterday, this time because some of its unions represent teachers. The Ministry of Labour informed the CCU in a letter obtained ...
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear, P. 1
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012062256959/National-news/ccu-denied-recognition-again.html
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 ...