News
Women face gender-based violence at work
Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng said the government is committed to eliminating violence in the workplace. Civil society, he said, supported the government’s action but wanted a specific mechanism introduced to help support female victims of such violence. ...
Soth Koemsoeun
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/women-face-gender-based-violence-work
Report urges overhaul of Cambodia factory safety
Safety in Cambodian garment factories needs to be improved through a complete overhaul of building regulations and the inspection regime, says a new report. The Cambodia Garment and Footwear Industry Fire and Life Safety Risk report, funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International ...
Richard Woodard
http://www.just-style.com/news/report-urges-overhaul-of-cambodia-factory-safety_id123870.aspx
Workers return in wake of factory floor collapse
Employees working at a Takeo province garment factory where part of the floor gave way beneath them last month were back on the job yesterday, though in different buildings at the large Bati district complex. ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-return-wake-factory-floor-collapse
Cambodian garment workers suffer from anemia, food insecurity: study
A new study indicated that 43. 2 percent of Cambodian garment workers suffered from anemia and 15. 7 percent of workers are underweight, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said Monday. The study also found that garment workers spent approximately 1. 3 U.S. dollars per day on ...
Xinhuanet News Staff
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-09/29/c_133682574.htm
Proposal aims to bring workers’ voices to negotiating table
A proposed project hopes to channel the widespread use of mobile phones among factory workers to bring the voice of the 600,000 Cambodians employed in the crucial garment sector into future wage negotiations. The project, which would collect information about working hours, conditions, wages and expenses ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/proposal-aims-to-bring-workers-voices-to-negotiating-table-67629/
Brands dodge blame over substandard factory
Behind the walls of the nondescript Hung Tak garment factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, more than 400 workers have been toiling in substandard conditions to cut and stitch clothing for some of the world’s biggest brands. But since the factory was named by the ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/brands-dodge-blame-over-substandard-factory-64606/
Global brands linked to latest shamed garment factory
Italian sportswear brand Kappa and U.S.-based retail giant Walmart apparently source clothing from the latest addition to the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) list of low-compliance factories, according to a union leader at the factory who provided the branded tags from the clothing her members cut ...
Sun Heng and Holly Robertson
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/global-brands-linked-to-latest-shamed-garment-factory-63900/
ILO says shaming factories leading to improved standards
Naming and shaming factories that fail to ensure a basic standard of conditions for their workers is starting to improve standards in the crucial garment sector, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), but persistent offenders remain. Nine factories are included in the “lowest compliance” category ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ilo-says-shaming-factories-leading-to-improved-standards-63202/
Iffy factory supplying LA’s finest
A Phnom Penh-based factory supplying uniforms for police officers and firefighters in the US city of Los Angeles continues to break Cambodian labour laws, a report to be publicly released today says. Kin Tai Garment factory, a supplier to 5.11 Tactical – which sells the uniforms ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/iffy-factory-supplying-la%E2%80%99s-finest
Factory shutters in shame
The Zongtex Garment factory off Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard looks like a nondescript residential compound, hidden down a dead-end road. There are no signs suggesting that it supplied to some of the world’s leading high street names – and the US military. Taiwanese-owned Zongtex Garment Manufacturing ...
Daniel Pye, Alice Cuddy and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-shutters-shame
Linking the worst factories with the labels
The building that housed USA Fully Field Garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district stands empty now. The grounds are littered with garbage and boxes full of dusty brand labels that were stitched onto clothes by almost 400 workers before the factory owner fled in ...
Simon Henderson and Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/linking-the-worst-factories-with-the-labels-55839/
Factory flaws go live
Unionists and labour rights officials are applauding a website scheduled to go live today that will hold to account garment factories that flout Cambodia’s labour law. The site, created and maintained by the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, will publicly name factories ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-flaws-go-live
New report says garment sector fails to meet UN standards
Cambodian garment manufacturers and the association that governs them are failing to meet the standards set by the U.N.’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as evidenced by lethal violence against workers during garment strikes in January, when five people were shot dead and ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-report-says-garment-sector-fails-to-meet-un-standards-54191/
Garment IPO to pay for factory
Taiwanese garment factory Grand Twins International (GTI) has carefully laid out a schedule so it can go public on Cambodia’s stock exchange after the dust settles from unrest tied to minimum wage disputes, according to the company’s chief financial controller, Henry Chen. GTI received approval from ...
Eddie Morton and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/garment-ipo-pay-factory
Cambodia Factories Grapple With Issue of Underage Workers
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia—In this quiet beach town, Lim Loeung says she spends up to 80 hours a week gluing soles onto shoes at a factory that does work for companies including Japanese sneaker-maker Asics Corp. 7936.TO +0.95% The factory believes Ms. Lim is at least 18 ...
Kate O' Keeffe
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303799404579287353595133592
CAMBODIA: Better Factories programme renewed
The Better Factories Cambodia programme has been renewed after a new, three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed. The new agreement, aimed at furthering the initiative’s mission to improve working conditions in Cambodian garment factories, was signed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Cambodian Ministry ...
Richard Woodard
http://www.just-style.com/news/better-factories-programme-renewed_id120127.aspx
New hope for SL strike resolution
With union and company officials at one of Asia’s largest garment factories making no progress in resolving a strike that has lasted nearly three months, a pair of labour relation groups are working on an agreement that all sides hope will end the deadlock. officials from ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/new-hope-sl-strike-resolution
CAMBODIA: H&M calls for annual minimum wage review
The Cambodian government should construct an effective annual review system for the minimum wage to ease worker unrest, according to clothing retail giant H&M. The Swedish company’s comments came after CEO Karl-Johan Persson visited the country in mid-October, meeting Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and other ...
Richard Woodard
http://www.just-style.com/news/hm-calls-for-annual-minimum-wage-review_id119576.aspx
Brands tell GMAC to dial it down
Some of the world’s largest clothing brands have warned the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia of possible business ramifications should the factory representative continue with plans to impede labour monitoring. Thirteen major buyers, including Gap, H&M, Levi’s, Nike and Puma, have signed a letter to GMAC ...
Daniel de Carteret
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/brands-tell-gmac-dial-it-down
ILO Initiative Could Unravel Cambodia’s Garment Industry: Manufacturers
A move by the International Labour Organization to name and shame garment producers in Cambodia that flout workers’ rights and safety standards could damage the industry’s reputation and result in a drastic reduction in orders from buyers abroad, according to a senior manufacturing official. Last week, ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/initiative-10042013150820.html