Safety and health at work

A new report has alleged labour rights abuses at Cambodian supplier factories for apparel giant H&M, as more than 500 garment workers gathered in Phnom Penh yesterday to air some of the same concerns over working conditions during a workers’ forum.   ...

Garment workers across the Kingdom will receive health insurance from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) by 2018, according to officials. ...

Former Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and labor activist Ros Siphay were released on bail Wednesday, nearly two months after they were arrested for taking part in a demonstration against the company during which protesters were attacked by a mob of angry tuk-tuk drivers. ...

Conflicting versions of events emerged yesterday after a Battambang man was found dead in a disused gold-mining pit in the province’s Phnom Proek district.   ...

The Ministry of Labour has urged the garment industry to take adequate health and safety measures to compensate for what they say is already an unusually hot dry season. ...

Two unionists jailed since February 2 have been released on bail by the Kompong Speu Provincial Court, although they remain charged with incitement and intentional violence in connection with a protest outside the Cerie garment factory, officials said Thursday. ...

Despite their overwhelmingly female workforce, garment factories in Kompong Speu province fail to adequately address the maternal health and child-care needs of their staff, according to new study set to be released by the French NGO Enfants and Developpment. ...

Officials blamed food poisoning for sparking the mass fainting of about 40 garment workers in a factory in the Svay Rieng border town of Bavet on Monday afternoon. ...

A boycott of the Capitol Bus Company organised by former drivers and their supporters is picking up steam online after a brutal beatdown took place at a protest last week. ...

Twenty female garment workers at Evergreen Apparel factory in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district fainted yesterday because of toilet fumes funnelled through the ventilation system, though heat stress and heavy workloads were also possible factors. ...

Cambodia and Saudi Arabia on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to begin work on opening a pipeline for Cambodians to work in the gulf nation, which has been routinely criticised for failing to protect migrant domestic workers from abysmal treatment and slave-like conditions. ...

Eleven opposition activists who have been jailed since 2014 for supposedly participating in an “insurrection” will have their appeal against their conviction heard on March 17, their lawyer said on Friday. ...

A fire burned through 45 hectares of sugarcane plantation belonging to three companies in Svay Rieng province’s Svay Tiep district on Tuesday, with one company representative suspecting that the fire was intentionally set. ...

More than 30 workers fainted at a garment factory in Kandal prov­ince over the past two days after inhaling noxious fumes circulated by a ventilation fan located near the facility’s toilets, an official said.   ...

Consular officials yesterday were working to repatriate a Cambodian maid fleeing what she described as unfair working conditions in Saudi Arabia, even as Cambodia’s minister of labour was en route to seal a long-awaited deal to open a pipeline of workers to the Gulf nation. ...

A bloody scuffle in Phnom Penh on Saturday left scores injured after protesting bus drivers and their supporters were brutally set upon by a rival association armed with sticks, metal bars and hammers. ...

Officials are attempting to se­cure the release of two Cambo­dian men who were sentenced to three months in a Thai prison on Thursday after being summarily convicted of at­tacking government inspectors at a market in Sa Kaeo province the day before, ac­cording to the Ministry ...

The number of workers killed and injured by traffic accidents nearly doubled in 2015, according to a report released by the National Social Security Fund yesterday. ...

Global brands rely on a hidden workforce within their supply chains to avoid responsibility for poor working conditions and abuse, according to a new report from the International Trade Union Confederation. ...

As part of a long-planned project to overhaul the country’s social security system, Prime Minister Hun Sen signed into law yesterday a sub-decree effectively granting health insurance to hundreds of thousands of Cambodian workers. ...

Cambodian recruitment agencies are drawing up more extensive training programs for maids being sent to Malaysia following a lifting of a ban on the practice in December. ...

Although Cambodia signed off on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia on Thursday that will once again allow the country to send domestic workers to its Asean neighbor, a Labor Ministry spokesman said it will not take effect for months. ...

More than 7,000 garment workers were injured and 130 killed during traffic accidents that occurred while they were being transported to and from factories in the first 11 months of the year, according to a report from the National Social Security Fund (NSSF).   ...

A mass fainting incident occurred again yesterday at a Chinese-owned garment factory that supplies nighties, bras and children’s clothing to North American retail chain Hudson Bay, with more than 60 workers collapsing at the factory in Kampong Speu’s  Samrong Tong district, after about 40 collapsed ...