Labor

Phnom Penh’s garment factories are operating at a greatly reduced capacity as workers return home to the provinces in droves in response to the government’s decision to increase security after the opposition warned they plan to hold mass demonstrations against the election results. Ken Loo, secretary-general ...

Cambodia has sent about 11,940 laborers overseas in the first six months of this year, down 29 percent from 16,900 it sent over the same period last year, the figures of the Ministry of Labor showed Tuesday. In January to June period this year, the country ...

On May 16, immediately after the ceiling of a shoe factory collapsed in Kompong Speu province, leaving two people dead, promises were made to prosecute those responsible for the tragedy and to conduct a nationwide in­spection of all factories. “We will have a committee investigate clearly ...

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Monday warned of “trouble” if opposition leader Sam Rainsy does not return to the negotiating table to hammer out a solution to a stalemate between the CPP and the opposition over irregularities during the July 28 national election. Mr. Kheng made ...

A joint-party task force that the National Election Committee (NEC) on Saturday announced would be set up to investigate alleged irregularities during the July 28 national election was abruptly abandoned Sunday, with NEC President Im Sousdey announcing that his organization will instead push ahead with ...

Most demands made by workers at a Takeo province garment factory were met following a large protest and five hours of negotiation. Asia Dragon (Garment) Co Ltd mediated with the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU), making concessions on most of the workers’ 16 ...

U.K. sugar firm Tate & Lyle on Wednesday said it was looking into recent allegations of child labor on two plantations in Koh Kong province it has been buying sugar from since 2010, but rebuked NGOs for not bringing the claims to its attention sooner. The ...

Thai and Cambodian hospitals will work together to improve medical access along the border particularly in treating common monsoon diseases like malaria, said Public Health Ministry’s inspector-general Dr. Thawatchai Kamoltham. Dr. Thawatchai said one aim of the collaboration is to reduce treatment and medical fees for ...

Cambodian students, graduates and jobseekers filled the main hall of the Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center on Tuesday looking for employment opportunities with some of Japan’s largest corporations. Organizers said the event aimed to bridge the gap between skilled Cambodian job seekers and companies from the world’s third ...

Cambodia’s Free Trade Union (FTU), one of the biggest unions in the country, threw its weight Monday behind the largest opposition party ahead of upcoming elections, citing the party’s commitment to raising the minimum wage for factory workers. Union representatives from 37 factories and enterprises met ...

The Asian garment manufacturing industry will undergo further segmentation in the next three to four years as competition becomes more intense, experts said. China, Thailand and Vietnam will mainly produce high-end clothing, while Bangladesh, Laos, Burma and Cambodia will mainly produce low-end clothing. Lu Qijian, ...

Staff at eight factories producing footwear for Japanese sportswear brand ASICS were trained Tuesday in how to make sure they are not employing child laborers, a company representative said. ASICS corporate staff have been in Cambodia this week in a bid to overcome the negative publicity ...

Despite criticisms over safety, outbreaks of sometimes violent industrial action and a raise in the minimum wage that it was warned would scare off manufacturers, Cambodia’s garment sector is booming, according to government figures. A report on state newswire Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP) on Friday said ...

This small Southeast Asian country was supposed to become a model for the world apparel industry, with tough factory monitoring and strong worker protections. But a dozen years after the United Nations’ International Labour Organization launched a program to manage Cambodia’s booming garment trade—the first of ...

Rem Vannak remains in poor health after enduring about two years of 21-hour days working for no pay on a fishing boat in Fiji, where he was beaten when he complained. Lin Yu Shin, who owns Giant Ocean – the company Vannak worked for that allegedly ...

Ministry of Interior officials held a closed-door meeting Monday with NGO representatives to contest Cambodia’s recent downgrade on the U.S. State Department’s Global Trafficking in Persons Report, which the ministry will discuss in a meeting with the U.S. Em­bassy this week. The annual report, released last ...

It’s been more than a year since union leader Sat Sep was fired from the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Poipet town, a dismissal that sparked strikes and ended in senior members of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation being driven from the casino’s ...

In light of ongoing disputes over working conditions in the garment sector, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) released yesterday details on hundreds of factories it believes will offer greater transparency along the garment supply chain – from producers to buyers – and shine ...

Cambodia’s garment industry, the country’s biggest income earner, recorded 2.06 billion U.S. dollars in export value in the first five months of this year, up 22 percent on the same period last year, a Commerce Ministry’s report showed Tuesday. Garment export accounts for more than 80 ...

Two UN agencies praised Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration Thursday as an “example of success” for addressing child labour in fisheries. In a joint report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the International Labour Organization recalled that the fisheries agency began raising awareness of ...

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have become magnets for Chinese investment amid the global economic slump. Among the most recent deals, Hunan Province-based Xinyuan Mining Co Ltd bought a license to exploit a 28 million square meter gold mine in Cambodia, and ...

A strike involving hundreds of casino workers – many who have been told their contracts have been terminated – reached an impasse yesterday after NagaWorld officials did not attend a conciliation session at the Arbitration Council, a union leader said. “The Arbitration Council could not immediately ...

Gambling went on as usual at NagaWorld, Phnom Penh’s only licensed hotel-casino, Monday, despite an ongoing strike by employees who claim that more than 400 of them have been fired following weeks of protest. About 300 workers sat outside the casino with banners on Monday in ...

Nagaworld casino has fired more than 400 workers who have spent about 10 days striking to demand a wage increase, union leaders, workers and a leaked internal memo have revealed. A list of names, obtained by the Post yesterday, was emailed to management and senior staff ...