News
Justice ministry to join committee to settle strikes
Officials at the Ministry of Justice will join members of the Labor Ministry, local authorities, police and provincial governors on the Committee for the Settlement of Strikes and Demonstrations after a union leader requested they be included. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25283/justice-ministry-to-join-committee-to-settle-strikes/
Free Unionists, FTU pleads
The Free Trade Union has sent a letter to police seeking the release of two union officials arrested on Tuesday over protests at the Cerie garment factory in Kampong Speu province. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/free-unionists-ftu-pleads
FTU president claims leaders fired unfairly
A national garment workers union has asked the government to reinstate 15 of its local union leaders it claims were fired simply due to their union membership. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ftu-president-claims-leaders-fired-unfairly
FTU boss says no cash for election
Chea Mony, the Free Trade Union president who announced in July that he was stepping down from his post, has said the union does not yet have the money available to hold a congress to vote in a new president. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ftu-boss-says-no-cash-election
FTU boss to sit out meet
The president of the Free Trade Union is slated to boycott this morning’s final meeting to discuss the trade union law, held at the Ministry of Labour. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ftu-boss-sit-out-meet
Union president Chea Mony to be welcomed into CNRP
Chea Mony said Monday that he would fulfill a longtime ambition and join the CNRP when he relinquishes his position as head of the Free Trade Union (FTU), which was formed in 1996 by his slain brother Chea Vichea and opposition leader Sam Rainsy. ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-president-chea-mony-to-be-welcomed-into-cnrp-88998/
Chea Mony vows to step down as Union chief
After 11 years as president of the Free Trade Union, Chea Mony said Sunday that he would not seek re-election as head of one of the country’s largest unions, which launched Cambodia’s labor movement nearly two decades ago. ...
Ouch Sony
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/chea-mony-vows-to-step-down-as-union-chief-88878/
Union chief’s new calling: factory land broker
As Free Trade Union officials were putting together a list of demands for striking workers at a factory in Kompong Speu province on Tuesday, the union’s president, Chea Mony, was in Kampot province inspecting a plot of land for a Chinese firm looking to set ...
Sek Odom and Matt Blomberg
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-chiefs-new-calling-factory-land-broker-87638/
Without new skills, Cambodian workers face challenges in ASEAN
With Asean integration growing closer, Cambodia’s workers will need new skills if they are to compete in an open region, labor experts say. Cambodia’s industry brings in billions of dollars for the economy and employs more than 600,000 workers, but it will not be able ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/without-new-skills-cambodian-workers-face-challenges-in-asean/2847736.html
Unions eye wage discussion
Negotiations for next year’s minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment and footwear sector are already gearing up, as union leaders prepare to meet this month to discuss what wage they will demand. During the week of June 21, union heads will hold a preliminary consensus-building meeting, said ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-eye-wage-discussion
Union asks Japanese to examine ‘assaults’
A Cambodian labour union this week sent a letter to the Japanese Embassy, asking for help dealing with reported violence against workers at a Japanese-owned garment factory in Kampong Speu province. ...
Pech Sotheary
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-asks-japanese-examine-assaults
Union asks embassy to investigate factory
The Free Trade Union on Thursday submitted a letter to the Japanese Embassy in Phnom Penh requesting that embassy officials investigate a Japanese-owned garment factory in Kompong Speu province that it claims tried to intimidate a union representative late last year. ...
Sek Odom
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-asks-embassy-to-investigate-factory-82542/
Workers say shuttered factory managers took them hostage
A Chinese-owned garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district locked up about 300 workers for two hours on Wednesday morning to force them to accept reduced salary payouts before it shuttered operations due to financial losses, union officials and the former workers said Thursday. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/workers-say-shuttered-factory-managers-took-them-hostage-77469/
Most are OK with the new wage, not all
After meeting with members, several labour union leaders yesterday said that they will not hold protests against the government-set garment industry minimum wage for 2015. Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng last week approved $128 as 2015’s minimum monthly wage in Cambodia’s garment sector. The increase, ...
Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/most-are-ok-new-wage-not-all
Court places two more union heads under supervision
Five of the six union leaders accused of alleged criminal activity during nationwide garment worker strikes and demonstrations in December and January are now under judicial supervision after two more of the group appeared before the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Friday. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/court-places-two-more-union-heads-under-supervision-71584/
Free Trade Union proposes $130 garment worker minimum wage
One of the country’s largest unions on Sunday came out in favor of a new minimum wage for garment workers far lower than what many of its counterparts have been agitating for over the past several months, bolstering prospects for a compromise with factories. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/free-trade-union-proposes-130-garment-worker-minimum-wage-70304/
Hun Sen says civil servants to get tax break
Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Thursday that civil servants making less than 800,000 riel, or about $200, a month will be exempt from paying income taxes, just days after the Finance Ministry sent a very different message to the country’s garment workers. ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-says-civil-servants-to-get-tax-break-69534/
Poverty line $120, gov’t says
Workers in Cambodia’s capital earning less than $120 per month are living below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning’s own calculation. At a September 17 workshop on the garment industry minimum wage, International Labor Organization Cambodia national director Tun Sophorn cited Ministry of ...
Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/poverty-line-120-gov%E2%80%99t-says
Cambodian labor unions lower minimum wage demands
Cambodian labor unions this week lowered their demands for a 60 percent increase to the country’s $100 minimum wage, as talks loom next month on setting a new wage.Unions agreed to call for $150 a month during a meeting with officials from the Garment Manufacturers’ ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/171407/cambodian-labor-unions-lower-minimum-wage-demands.html
Factory at center of January strikes under review
The Yakjin Trading Corporation, a South Korean company whose factory was at the center of major demonstrations earlier this year, has begun a review of its operations. ...
Heng Reaksmey
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/factory-at-center-of-january-strikes-under-review/2439828.html
Rights group urges Cambodia to drop case against six unionists
A human rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Cambodia to end the prosecution of six trade unionists accused of stoking violent clashes between protesting workers and security forces, calling the case against them “politically motivated.” New York-based Human Rights Watch said prominent activists Pav Sina, ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/unionists-09042014181530.html
Union leader says charges baseless
One of six union leaders charged and summonsed for questioning over a strike that ended in government forces shooting dead at least five people in January has sent a message to authorities to hurry up and get his hearing over with. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leader-says-charges-baseless
More Than 1,000 Faintings Reported in Cambodian Factories This Year
The faintings between January and August were much higher than the 802 reported in the whole of last year, while only one factory worker died in the workplace in 2013, the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) said in a ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/faintings-08212014140815.html
Odor causes nearly 200 garment workers to faint at 2 factories
More than 190 workers at two separate garment factories fainted at work on Friday and Saturday, both times after complaining of foul odors, union leaders and workers said. At the Chinese-owned Sixplus Industry factory in Kandal province’s Mok Kampoul district, which makes sportswear for retail giant ...