ព័ត៌មាន
More workers rally at ongoing Naga strike
bout 100 chefs and kitchen staff walked off the job at the capital’s NagaWorld casino yesterday as a workers’ strike at the luxury entertainment venue entered its fifth day. More than 1,000 protesters — the majority of the casino’s workers — rallied outside the front entrance ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013022761629/National/more-workers-rally-at-ongoing-naga-strike.html
ILO Respond to Scathing Stanford Report on Factory Monitoring
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Better Factories Program (BFC) has responded to a scathing report released last week by Stanford University, which said the ILO program was ineffectual as it had not helped secure Cambodian workers a significant wage increase since the program started over ...
Hun Sen Orders Workers Compensated
Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to compensate thousands of garment workers demanding back pay they say they are owed since their factory owner fled the country to escape mounting debt, according to officials. Kandal provincial labor department director Thol Neang told RFA’s ...
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/workers-02192013184511.html
Minimum wage may rise for Cambodian garment workers
The Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour has scheduled a meeting on February 26 with representatives of various unions to discuss the new minimum wage for garment workers in the country. However, the Ministry expects the various workers’ unions to agree on what the new wage should ...
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/apparel-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=120969
Garment factory welcomes back striking workers
Revoking its decision to sack the vast majority of its work force for a prolonged strike, the Winson International garment factory agreed to allow the 868 workers back to work following negotiations late last month, worker representatives said yesterday. After mediation by officials from the Ministry ...
Pilot scheme plans to send maids to Singapore
Four hundred Cambodian women could be sent to Singapore as soon as the middle of this year to work as maids under a pilot scheme by the governments of Cambodia and Singapore. The Post has obtained an internal circular the Singapore Ministry of Manpower sent to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013020461152/National/maids-heading-to-singapore.html
Faintings in Cambodian ‘model’ factories raise concern
A lobby group says three separate mass fainting incidents this week that took place at two Cambodian garment factories “speaks volumes” about the issue, because both workplaces have relatively good reputations for worker’s rights. More than 140 workers fainted on Wednesday and Thursday at Kandal’s QMI ...
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
Factory clash has familiar feel
Two protesters and three factory officials were injured in a clash at a garment factory in Kampong Speu province yesterday as a report revealed that more than 60 unionists and workers were injured in such incidents in 2012. Vann Bun, a Free Trade Union activist, said ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011860862/National/factory-clash-has-familiar-feel.html
Cambodia lacks skilled workforce
Against the backdrop of the slight recovery by world economies, especially the US and Europe, two traditional markets for Cambodia, Asian Development Bank (ADB) deputy country director Peter Brimble sat down with the Post’s group business editor, May Kunmakara, to talk about Cambodia’s economic performance, ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013011160733/CEO-Talk/cambodia-lacks-skilled-workforce.html
Lifting maid ban proving a challenge
A lack of legal protections, insufficient commitment from the Malaysian government and an overworked, understaffed embassy are among the major obstacles to lifting the maid ban, according to an internal government report obtained yesterday. Penned by the Ministry of Interior, the 12-page brief details a ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013010960701/National/lifting-maid-ban-proving-a-challenge.html
Garment factory worker strikes increased threefold in 2012
Strikes staged by garment and footwear factory workers more than tripled in 2012 compared to 2011, with more than 100,000 workers participating in at least one strike, an official of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said yesterday. “Historically, prior to any elections, we will see a ...
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 ...
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
Strikes could resume, says union official
A sacked union official at the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Beanteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town said yesterday hundreds of workers would strike again if he and a colleague were not reinstated after negotiations on Sunday. ...
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 ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/National/pm-urges-factories-to-up-wages.html
Pension scheme ramps up
More than 700,000 workers at private companies and factories across 19 provinces have registered to join a nationwide pension scheme that goes into effect in 2015, Labour Ministry officials told the Post yesterday. A branch of the National Social Security Fund (NSFF), the pension scheme was ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012121160211/National-news/pension-scheme-ramps-up.html
Movement on migrant Memorandum of Understanding
A migrant worker Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is back in the spotlight after Malaysia yesterday agreed to send a delegation of senior government officials to meet with their Cambodian counterparts tomorrow and Thursday. MoU talks are of mounting importance in the face of escalating evidence of ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012112059823/National-news/movement-on-migrant-mou.html
Maids find local Champion
The abuse of Cambodian maids overseas has become one of the most documented human rights violation here. But as the Government, media, NGOs and aid agencies focus their energies on domestic laborer living abroad, advocates have begun to urge that closer attention be paid to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012111359705/National-news/maids-find-local-champion.html
A factory’s fainting crisis
In a single factory that supplies some of the biggest international brands, faintings occurred every day for five years, a new investigation by the Cambodian Legal Education Centre has found. Until just weeks ago, when the management installed new fans, three to four garments workers were ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012110759624/National-news/a-factorys-fainting-crisis.html
Maid Talk Premature: Ministry
The Ministry of Labour has played down reports it is close to sending domestic workers to Singapore, a country that has only recently granted foreign maids a weekly day off. The two countries’ governments had been in talks with Singapore’s Association of Employment Agencies about placing ...
Kingdom and Qatar to form labour watchdog
Cambodia’s next step in allowing workers such as maids and builders to travel to Qatar will be to create a committee with the Arab state to ensure their safety is protected, a senior labour official said yesterday. The Senate on Wednesday supported an agreement between the ...
Maid ban to remain until safety improves
The ban on sending Cambodian women for employment as maids in Malaysia will be lifted once certain safety and training precautions for workers are established, a senior government official said yesterday. Seng Sakada, the director general of the Ministry of Labour, said that his office is ...
ASEAN forum to tackle migrant worker safety
One of the biggest challenges to protecting Cambodian migrant workers is the sheer distance between their homeland and the countries they are working in, Ministry of Labour officials said yesterday. A pattern has emerged in which brokers lure more and more Cambodians away from traditional border-country ...