News

Employer representatives and trade unions sat down across from each other for the first time yesterday for head-to-head negotiations over next year’s garment sector minimum wage, with factory owners reluctantly offering a small $2 increase to their earlier proposal of $144.20. ...

The Labour Ministry, if ordered by the National Election Committee, will request employers to grant workers time off to enrol to vote in their native communes, according to an official. ...

A group of 17 union leaders will demand $179.60 when they sit down for the latest round of negotiations this week to determine the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs more than 600,000 Cambodians. The monthly minimum wage is currently $140. The new figure ...

Labour Minister Ith Samheng yesterday told stakeholders involved in the upcoming minimum wage negotiations to base their demands on the country’s economic situation, and not to try to influence the process through protests or demonstrations. Talks over the 2017 minimum wage for the garment sector are ...

Unions meeting on Friday arrived at an estimated cost-of-living salary for garment workers ahead of minimum wage talks, one remarkably similar to the monthly wage they’ve demanded two years running, though suggested the final number they push for will be higher. ...

The Labor Court will be ready to hear cases by the end of next year, according to officials from the Ministry of Labor and Vocational Training. The court is being optimistically designed to effectively resolve labor disputes in the garment sector, Labor Minister Ith Samheng said ...

The controversial Union Law, which was passed and put into force after dozens of debates and protests, is expected to build confidence among garment and textile buyers as well as employers and workers, experts said. Sandra D’Amico, vice president of the Cambodian Federation of Employers ...

Labour rights abuses are taking place at Cambodian supplier factories for US clothing retailer Gap Inc, according to a new report, the latest in a series aimed at bringing attention to perennially poor conditions in the Kingdom’s garment industry ahead of the International Labour Organization’s ...

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.   ...

Thousands of workers and unions gathered yesterday to celebrate the 130th International Labor Day, once again demanding the government raise the minimum wage in the garment and footwear industries to $207 a month. ...

Representatives of employers from Cambodia’s industrial sector called for changes to the contentious draft union law yesterday. They criticized the government’s enforcement of strike regulations while requesting changes to the law that include higher thresholds for forming unions and more powers for dissolving unions. ...

Failing to receive a response to a letter submitted to Prime Minister Hun Sen via his Facebook page last week, a group of unions yesterday took their cause to the Council of Ministers, this time submitting a formal letter requesting a sit-down with the premier ...

The head of the National Assembly’s legislation commission said he hoped to have a controversial draft union law passed “very soon” after the latest round of feedback from unions and employers during a public workshop at Parliament on Wednesday. ...

About 500 people gathered outside Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar prison on Tuesday to demand the release of form­er Capitol Tours bus driver Nan Vanna and la­bor activist Ros Si­phay, who were arrested two weeks ago for participating in a demonstration against the company. ...

The Ministry of Labour is eyeing the creation of a draft law that would codify the sometimes-nebulous process that determines the garment industry’s minimum wage, attendees at the ministry’s annual meeting were told last week. ...

Unions yesterday called for further discussion of the draft trade union law after a bipartisan committee tasked with examining the controversial legislation concluded on Tuesday having agreed to few substantive changes. ...

Trade unions appear to have prevailed over employers in their yearslong tug-of-war over a controversial draft Trade Union Law that reached the National Assembly last week. ...

Trade unions are proposing a new committee to monitor the country’s social fund for injured workers, pension program for civil servants and health care for the poor in a bid to improve and expand coverage. ...

Several trade unions representing some of the garment sector’s 700,000 workers petitioned lawmakers on Monday to make important changes to a controversial draft union law before passing it and warned of mass protests if they were ignored. ...

Despite repeated threats of strikes, a coalition of garment sector unions is still waiting on a response from the Ministry of Labour for the wide-ranging reforms it called for last month, with plans to seek help from overseas. ...

Garment workers unions unhappy with next year’s recently announced $140 minimum wage for the sector will meet this week to determine whether or not to hold demonstrations to protest the disappointingly low figure.The unions were pushing for $160 a month when the government announced the ...

Factory and union representatives remain as far apart as ever over where to set next year’s minimum wage for garment workers, now at $128 per month, after hours of heated negotiations Wednesday and a vote that seemed to settle nothing. ...

Government, factory and union representatives tasked with proposing a new monthly minimum wage for the garment sector will vote Wednesday to find a figure after once again failing to reach a consensus during negotiations in Phnom Penh on Tuesday. ...

A group of independent unions say they will push for a new monthly minimum wage of $207 for garment workers when three-way negotiations with the government and factories begin in earnest next week. ...