Industries
Manufacturing
Brands, international unions press Cambodian government on labor issues
Representatives from some of the world’s largest fashion brands and the leader of one of the world’s biggest union organizations met this week with Cambodian officials and local clothing manufacturers to demand better treatment and improve workplace safety for the country’s estimated 600,000 garment workers. Garment ...
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/brands-international-unions-press-government-on-labor-issues/1923596.html
International union urges factories to raise wages
A major international union wants Cambodian garment workers and factory managers to return to negotiations, following meetings between international companies and officials. The IndustriALL Global Union said Tuesday that management should seriously consider a minimum wage of $160 per month, after international buyers such as Levis ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/international-union-urges-factories-to-raise-wages/1923487.html
Cambodian officials meet with buyers from global brands on garment issues
Cambodian officials, led by Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Keat Chhon, on Monday met with a 18-member delegation representing global brands and trade unions to discuss garment worker rights and wages. It was the second round of talks between Cambodian government officials and representatives of major brands ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-05/26/c_133363019.htm
Workers turn models on political catwalk
About 150 garment workers turned out to the Phnom Penh offices of the United Sisterhood Alliance NGO on Sunday to watch a politically charged fashion show entitled “Beautiful Clothes, Ugly Reality.” Aimed to highlight “the income gap between Cambodian garment workers and the selected CEOs of ...
Mech Dara and Alex Willemyns
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-turn-models-on-political-catwalk-59540/
More unionists charged on eve of brand meeting
The Takeo Provincial Court charged eight union representatives with incitement Sunday for taking part in a garment factory strike, bringing to 17 the number of unionists charged this month alone. The latest in the spate of recent arrests came just ahead of today’s high-level meeting between ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/more-unionists-charged-on-eve-of-brand-meeting-59538/
Union leaders evade arrest, co-workers say
Two union leaders narrowly escaped arrest yesterday morning when employees on strike at a Phnom Penh garment factory forced their release from police and security guards, fellow union officials said. Seang Sambath, president of the Worker Friendship Union Federation, said WFUF vice president Mao Vannak and ...
Mom Kunthear and Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leaders-evade-arrest-co-workers-say-0
Union leader rejects video, photo evidence
During his second day under questioning on charges of inciting violence and property damage at a January 2 protest, union leader Vorn Pao was presented with photographs showing his tuk-tuk packed with rocks, and a video of him calling on low-ranking police to turn their ...
Eang Mengleng and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-rejects-video-photo-evidence-59326/
Five months on, witnesses recall Muon Sokmean’s beating
Muon Sokmean, a 29-year-old garment worker, scrambled off Veng Sreng Street on January 3 with military police in violent pursuit, brandishing their batons. What had been a militant protest for a $160 minimum wage in the garment sector—with many protesters lobbing rocks and crude Molotov cocktails ...
Mech Dara and Alex Consiglio
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/five-months-on-witnesses-recall-muon-sokmeans-beating-59115/
Trial for 23 to resume amid rally
The trial of 23 men arrested at violent demonstrations in early January continues at 8am today, and unionists are planning on rallying outside the court in a show of solidarity. About 100 union members will join staff from the Cambodian Labour Confederation and the Coalition of ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/trial-23-resume-amid-rally
Victim’s kin ‘no right to cash’
The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) has defended its decision not to pay a survivors’ pension to the family of a teenager killed in a ceiling collapse at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province last May. On the anniversary of the collapse on ...
Sen David and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/victim%E2%80%99s-kin-%E2%80%98no-right-cash%E2%80%99
Workers fired after strike
Two factories in the Manhattan Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet town have fired more than 40 workers since thousands-strong strikes ended early this month, unions say. Terminations at Best Way and Fico garment factories were bosses’ way of exacting revenge for the ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-fired-after-strike
Wing Star victim’s kin not paid out
When an overloaded and illegally built storage level at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province collapsed last May 16, officials went into damage control, promising to compensate victims using a relatively new state fund. But one year after teenager Kim Dany and co-worker ...
Shane Worrell
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wing-star-victim%E2%80%99s-kin-not-paid-out
Veng Sreng Street Upgrade behind schedule
The head of a construction company working to upgrade Phnom Penh’s dusty, potholed Veng Sreng Street said Thursday that the project would take twice as long to complete as expected. In November, Phnom Penh governor Pa Socheatvong announced that a 6.5 km strip of the road—which ...
Sek Odom
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/veng-sreng-street-upgrade-behind-schedule-58872/
Nearly 850 protests this year: police
Almost 850 demonstrations or strikes have occurred nationwide since the year began – a seemingly anarchic average of more than six a day, the General Commissariat of National Police announced this week, blaming politicians, NGOs and trade unions for helping to incite demonstrators and “complicating ...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/nearly-850-protests-year-police
Baby formula brands place profit above health
Dara Raksmey, the owner of a pharmacy of the same name on Phnom Penh’s Street 294, keeps a record of every can of Dumex baby formula she sells. “If you buy six large cans you get a scooter and if you buy 12 large cans you ...
Ouch Sony and George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/baby-formula-brands-place-profit-above-health-58635/
Labour leaders decry bail payment and nine arrests
Labour union leaders denounced the government yesterday, alleging unfair treatment in the wake of nine union worker arrests last week and a hefty bail payment by a union president yesterday. Ath Thorn, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), yesterday paid $25,000 ...
Sean Teehan and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-leaders-decry-bail-payment-and-nine-arrests
HRW says trial of Stung Meanchey pair ‘flawed’
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has labeled the trial of two teenagers arrested during the lethal suppression of a garment sector strike in November 12 as “deeply flawed” and said that the pair should be spared prison sentences. In a statement Sunday, the rights organization claims that ...
George Wright
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hrw-says-trial-of-stung-meanchey-pair-flawed-58483/
Angkor brewery agrees to strikers’ demands
More than 200 striking workers at Cambodia’s largest brewer, Cambrew Ltd., resumed work on Saturday after the company agreed to lift their monthly salary from $120 to $150 as they had been demanding. The workers at the company, which produces Angkor beer and Black Panther stout, ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-brewery-agrees-to-strikers-demands-58466/
Another three textile union reps arrested
Police arrested another three union representatives on Friday for allegedly inciting garment workers to strike and protest in front of their factory over the past few weeks, this time in Kandal province. It follows the arrest last week of six representatives of another union ahead of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/another-three-textile-union-reps-arrested-58456/
Kia enters market with high hopes
Kia Motors opened its first showroom in Cambodia on Friday and the local authorised dealer, A&A Auto Group, says the time is right for the Korean carmaker to join the ranks of those looking to tap the country’s growing middle class. Sin Soveoung, sales manager for ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/kia-enters-market-high-hopes
Brewery strike pays off for staff
Staff at a brewery that produces Angkor Beer returned to work on the weekend after management agreed to a strike-ending $30 raise on Saturday. More than 1,000 workers at Cambrew Ltd in Preah Sihanouk province walked off the job on Thursday after a month of wage-increase ...
Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/brewery-strike-pays-staff
Union leader ready to pay bulk of bail
Independent union leader Ath Thorn said Sunday he had collected enough money from supporters to pay most of his $25,000 bail to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, and would deliver it to the court Monday. The court has charged Mr. Thorn, president of the Coalition of ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-leader-ready-to-pay-bulk-of-bail-58474/
Angkor Beer workers protest for pay hike
More than 200 employees of Cambodia’s largest brewer, Cambrew Ltd., held a protest outside the brewery in Sihanoukville on Thursday to demand a $30 dollar salary increase to $120 monthly salaries, worker representatives said. The company, which produces Angkor beer and Black Panther stout, employs more ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/angkor-beer-workers-protest-for-pay-hike-58424/
Standards must improve: official
Small food and beverage makers are at risk of being uncertified when the ASEAN economic community takes shape in 2015, with the vast majority far from achieving international quality and safety standards, a government official says. Him Phanith, the deputy director of National Productivity Center, said ...
Chan Muyhong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/standards-must-improve-official