Ministry of Labor highlights triumphs in 2013 Annual Report

The Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training released its 2013 annual report Monday, trumpeting a list of nine achievements it had reached in line with its five-year plan for the fourth government mandate, which ended last year. … Speaking to a crowd of about 100 officials at the ministry’s Toul Kok district headquarters in Phnom Penh, Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng delivered the annual report, which states in its summary that in 2013 “Peace, political stability, social order and security, and the respect for rights and freedom and human dignity in all aspects…were consolidated on the basis of multi-party liberal democracy.” … While garment factory strikes in December and January, and the ensuing deaths of five protesters, were directly related to labor conditions and demands for a $160 per month minimum wage, Minister Sam Heng distanced his ministry from any responsibility for the bloodshed. “Clashes like that are not labor-related…. The riot at Veng Sreng Street is a different story and relevant only to the Penal Law, or some other law,” the minister said. …

Matt Blomberg and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-of-labor-highlights-triumphs-in-2013-annual-report-51872/