The Phnom Penh Post
Operation ‘urgent’ for strike detainee
Representatives for a detainee held since his arrest at a strike in early January say the window to operate on his broken hand is closing. Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday will hear a special temporary bail request for Sokun Sombath Piseth, 31, one of 21 ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/operation-%E2%80%98urgent%E2%80%99-strike-detainee
Ministry reiterates holiday pay
The Ministry of Labour has announced that factory managers must allow employees three days off for Khmer New Year, even as some union leaders encourage workers to extend that time. In a letter to factory owners dated March 25, Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng reminds owners ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ministry-reiterates-holiday-pay
Workplace deaths up
Workplace deaths shot up more than 60 per cent last year when compared with 2012, while injuries and payouts to those injured also saw dramatic increases, according to data released yesterday by the National Social Security Fund (NSSF). Speaking during a conference at the Ministry of ...
Sen David and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workplace-deaths
Assembly back, CNRP not
The Kingdom’s fifth National Assembly is to open its second session today, more than six months after the opposition party boycotted the inauguration of parliament on September 23 and left 68 Cambodian People’s Party lawmakers to swear-in at the Royal Palace on their own. According to ...
Meas Sokchea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/assembly-back-cnrp-not
Crane makes itself at home
A growing number of red-headed Sarus cranes are reportedly flocking west from Vietnam to a protected sanctuary in Kampot province’s Kampong Trach district, and conservationists observing the trend aren’t sure why. The Tuoitrenews website reported on Saturday that unusually large numbers of the birds, which are classified as ...
Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/crane-makes-itself-home
New clinic performs ‘operation smile’
Thirty-year-old Sam Hoiy never dreamed her son would have the opportunity to live a life without the cleft lip that has always marred his otherwise delicate features. Hoiy’s seven-month-old son is one of more than 100 Cambodians being treated and screened by a team of ...
Mom Kunthear and Amelia Woodside
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-clinic-performs-%E2%80%98operation-smile%E2%80%99
Moratorium on new universities
The Ministry of Education has vowed to shift its focus from the quantity of the country’s universities to their quality by instituting a moratorium on the approval of new institutions, officials said yesterday. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said that with more than 100 universities already ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/moratorium-new-universities
Compensation plan agreed to, says ADB
Following a scathing report from its internal watchdog about the resettlement of thousands of Cambodian families affected by a national railway rehabilitation project that it is funding, the Asian Development Bank has agreed with the government on an action plan for further compensation, it said ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/compensation-plan-agreed-says-adb
Big logging cartel alleged
Prime Minister Hun Sen’s brother Hun Neng and a Vietnamese state-owned rubber firm are involved in an illegal logging cartel involving several well-connected companies operating on a “massive scale” in the embattled Prey Lang forest, forest monitors working in the area allege. Video footage and photographs ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-logging-cartel-alleged
New Ranariddh party approved
Prince Norodom Ranariddh is officially back in the political game. The Ministry of Interior has approved the former prime minister’s Community of Royalist People’s Party (CRPP), Ranariddh’s cabinet chief, Noranarith Anandayath, said yesterday. ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-ranariddh-party-approved
Rubber decline stokes worry
The government and industry insiders are worried about the steady decline of rubber prices over the last three years, during which the area it is cultivated in has grown. “Farmers and investors raised concern . . . over the trend of the market and the price of natural ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/rubber-decline-stokes-worry
NGOs issue one more plea to stop Xayaburi
With time running short before Laos’s Xayaburi hydropower dam enters its final, potentially irreversible stages of construction, a group of NGOs has made another call for its suspension. In a joint declaration released today, 39 organisations based in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand and Australia set a one-year ...
Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ngos-issue-one-more-plea-stop-xayaburi
Two killed in separate UXO blasts
A 12-year-old boy and a 37-year-old farmer lost their lives over the weekend in UXO explosions in Battambang and Pailin provinces. ...
Lieng Sarith
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/two-killed-separate-uxo-blasts
Officials to rotate after eight years
The Ministry of Interior on Friday announced that provincial and municipal governors and deputy governors will now be reshuffled between provinces every eight years in a move that the ministry maintained would help “improve services”. ...
Vong Sokheng
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/officials-rotate-after-eight-years
Union bosses called in
Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday summonsed three senior leaders of Cambodia’s largest independent garment union for questioning over claims they embezzled money meant to be paid to workers in compensation following an industrial dispute, a court official has said. ...
Buth Reaksmey Kongkea
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-bosses-called
Lawyer has hopes Veng Sreng clients will be freed
A lawyer representing three of the 23 people arrested during garment strike clashes on January 2 and 3 hopes the capital’s court will drop charges against her clients when it hears their case on April 18, she said yesterday. ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/lawyer-has-hopes-veng-sreng-clients-will-be-freed
Brands ‘failing their workers’
European mega-brands are not doing enough to ensure that the Cambodian workers who make their products receive a basic living wage, according to a report released today. Tailored Wages, an analysis of 50 of Europe’s biggest clothing brands, found that many major high-street chains are doing ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brands-%E2%80%98failing-their-workers%E2%80%99
Aeon MFI to expand in Cambodia
Aeon Microfinance (Cambodia) plans to expand its branches in Cambodia this year and also diversify its products from the current base after two years of operating in the Kingdom, officials with the company say. Until now, the microfinance institution (MFI) – which is part of the ...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/aeon-mfi-expand-cambodia
Workers to file stories from the factory floor
The Cambodian Center for Independent Media (CCIM) is hoping to turn a select group of garment workers into muckrakers by offering a journalism program through the Voice of Democracy news outlet. Free of charge, the course will last until October and have a firm focus on ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-file-stories-factory-floor
Hundreds protest Laos dam
Yin Vuth, one of hundreds of Cambodians who protested against the Don Sahong dam over the weekend, said that if construction on the project in Laos goes ahead, the fish will disappear, and once the fish disappear, the dolphins will be next. “All we will have ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/hundreds-protest-laos-dam
Big dip in illegal fishing: gov’t
Cambodian authorities intervened in far fewer illegal fishing cases last year compared with 2012, when Prime Minister Hun Sen first banned commercial angling nationwide in a bid to replenish waterways and aid small-scale fishermen. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which released an ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/big-dip-illegal-fishing-gov%E2%80%99t
Slight change of plans
A few thousand opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party supporters marched through central Phnom Penh yesterday as the party held its largest public gathering in the capital since protesters were chased out of Freedom Park in early January. Although Prime Minister Hun Sen suggested in late February ...
Meas Sokchea and Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/slight-change-plans
Tough talk on ELCs
Economic land concessionaires not abiding by their contracts could have their licences revoked if they have seriously breached the terms, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said. Illegally seizing forest land would be punished under the Law on Forestry, he said on Friday, speaking at an annual ...
May Titthara and Daniel Pye
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/tough-talk-elcs
Boxes for donations, not bribes: minister
The minister of education proposed yesterday that donation boxes for teachers be installed in schools across the country, but stressed their aim would be to diminish rather than grow a culture of bribery in the system. Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron presented the idea for the ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/boxes-donations-not-bribes-minister