News
Structures by Phnom Penh canal flattened
A collection of houses and other structures belonging to nine families living alongside a canal in the capital’s Russey Keo district was destroyed yesterday by a large group of men sent by local authorities. ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/structures-phnom-penh-canal-flattened
Areng mapped in hope ecotourism can save valley from dam
A group of university students from Phnom Penh opposed to a proposed hydropower dam in Koh Kong province entered the project’s construction site on Sunday for a 10-day study aiming to highlight the area’s alternative potential for ecotourism. ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/areng-mapped-in-hope-ecotourism-can-save-valley-from-dam-78006/
Mondolkiri drivers say officials extort bribes
A group of minivan drivers blocked a highway in Mondolkiri province Tuesday in protest of what they claim is ongoing extortion by government officials of vehicles transporting ready-made furniture. “There are four to five checkpoints and we have to pay between 10,000 to 20,000 riel ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/mondolkiri-drivers-say-officials-extort-bribes-71331/
Garment wage talks fall apart
The tripartite working group set up to negotiate and advise the Ministry of Labour’s Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) on next year’s minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment sector has stopped meeting after reaching a stalemate. Made up of 27 members – nine each from employers, the government ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-wage-talks-fall-apart
Evictees sign payout deal they can’t read
Some of the families in a protracted land dispute with a pair of Thai-owned sugar plantations in Koh Kong province say they were pressured over the weekend into signing compensation deals with the firms they could not read, because they were written in Thai, and ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/evictees-sign-payout-deal-they-cant-read-without-lawyers-70997/
Wage talks remain in deadlock
The third day of negotiations between members of a working group trying to reach a consensus on the minimum monthly garment wage remained stagnant yesterday, as manufacturers refused to budge from their $110 offer. ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-talks-remain-deadlock
Illegal logging ravaging the last forests, activists say
Forestry activists say at least 55,000 tons of luxury wood were sent from Cambodia to China this year alone. Activists from communities that live near or among some of Cambodia’s last forests told reporters Wednesday that illegal logging is ravaging their homelands, part of a “systematic” ...
Kong Sothanarith
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/illeal-logging-ravaging-the-last-forests-activist-say/2492309.html
S Korean farming industry slammed
Long considered the friendlier and less exploitative option for overseas Cambodian migrants, South Korea is now being slammed by Amnesty International for a number of abuses afflicting its migrant-dominated agriculture sector. The 20,000 foreign workers fuelling South Korea’s farming industry regularly encounter intimidation, violence, excessive working ...
Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/s-korean-farming-industry-slammed
Cambodia factories snub workers arrested in January strikes
While the smoke has long cleared on January’s violent garment strikes, for many of the 23 workers and unionists arrested and tried on charges widely considered to be baseless, the ordeal is far from over. Nine months after security forces used deadly violence to end strikes ...
Alice Cuddy, Chhay Channyda & Mom Kunthear
http://www.ucanews.com/news/cambodia-factories-snub-workers-arrested-in-january-strikes/72213
Another wage body to form
Following a meeting with parliamentarians at the National Assembly yesterday, Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng announced the ministry would form a 27-member committee to study technical aspects of raising the minimum wage in Cambodia’s garment sector. The new committee will comprise nine representatives each from ...
Pech Sotheary and Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/another-wage-body-form
Cambodia arrests 11 in China dam protest
Authorities in western Cambodia have detained 11 activists after they tried to stop further studies for a planned Chinese-built dam. About 30 local villagers and environmental activists in the Areng Valley went to the area Monday to protect barricades they had erected earlier this year to ...
Kimseng Men
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodia-arrests-11-in-china-dam-protest/2450828.html
Delay on maid deal: ministry
The Ministry of Labour plans to delay signing off on a controversial agreement to reopen a pipeline of Cambodian maids to Malaysia until a deal is reached on a second agreement regarding other migrant workers, a ministry official said yesterday. Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour told ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/delay-maid-deal-ministry
In China, nowhere to run
In yet another case of Cambodian women facing abuse in China, a 19-year-old told the Post yesterday that she has taken to living on the streets after the consulate in Shanghai refused to pay for her repatriation. Kim Sophea*, who claims she has been forced into marriage in ...
Sen David and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/china-nowhere-run
Citizen Journalists Move To Establish Wider Network
Around 80 citizen journalists from around Cambodia held a meeting in Phnom Penh Wednesday, in a first-ever networking event for a new kind of reporter in the country. Professional journalists and other media professionals joined the event, sponsored by the Cambodian Center for Independent Media and ...
Suy Heimkhemra
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/citizen-journalists-move-to-establish-wider-network/2422037.html
Visa ‘loophole’ no friend to maids: NGOs
Cambodia’s embassy in Kuala Lumpur has played a key role in pressuring domestic workers to stay in the country despite fears for their welfare, rights groups have said. While a moratorium was placed on sending domestic workers to Malaysia in 2011 amid mounting concerns over abuses, ...
Alice Cuddy
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/visa-%E2%80%98loophole%E2%80%99-no-friend-maids-ngos
UK urged to help improve Cambodia’s factories
A group of unions in the U.K. is urging its government to make sure British brands sourcing clothes from Cambodian factories respect their workers’ rights, and to ask the European Union to negotiate a deal with the Cambodian government to improve factory conditions. In a July ...
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/uk-urged-to-help-improve-cambodias-factories-65704/
Officials raid villager’s home in KDC dispute
Police and court officials on Wednesday searched the home of villager Oum Sophy, who has been outspoken opponent of the well-connected KDC company as it has tried to push her and dozens of her neighbors off their land in Kompong Chhnang province. The raid came after ...
Kuch Naren
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/officials-raid-villagers-home-in-kdc-dispute-64802/
Getting on the same page
In what is shaping up to be the first of several pivotal garment wage talks, unions are to meet for the first time today to discuss the amount they should request for next year’s minimum wage – but labour leaders and observers say coming to ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/getting-same-page
Citizen-led media gets new blog
In a bid to highlight abuses in the workplace, an NGO today will officially launch a website and hotline, allowing people to post stories as citizen journalists. The Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) will hold a ceremony this morning promoting their new project, Voice of the ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/citizen-led-media-gets-new-blog
Arbitration’s cost and value
The Arbitration Council Foundation, credited with helping resolve about 1,700 industrial disputes, has reached verbal agreement with a Swedish aid agency to receive funding until the end of 2016, a spokesman said yesterday. But members of the labour-dispute resolution body desire a more permanent solution that ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/arbitration%E2%80%99s-cost-and-value
On the World Cup clock
It’s day seven of the FIFA World Cup, and the night staff at Phnom Penh’s popular Score Sports Bar and Grill are looking a bit sleep-deprived. Score is paying its staff “very well” in extra wages during the World Cup for the long nights they ...
Kevin Ponniah
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/world-cup-clock
Union leader to face another day in court
The leader of Cambodia’s largest independent garment union is due to appear in court this afternoon for a third round of pretrial questioning over a case stemming from a strike that ended more than six months ago. Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) president ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leader-face-another-day-court
GMAC to hold class on firing
Amid complaints from union and labour rights officials of illegal firings over the years, Cambodia’s garment factory association is holding a course on the termination process in Preah Sihanouk province today. ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/gmac-hold-class-firing
Migrants flee Thai instability
Thousands of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand are rushing back across the border, voluntarily repatriating themselves in the face of increasingly hostile rhetoric towards undocumented labourers. In the wake of Thailand’s coup d’état last month, army chief General Prayuth Chan-o-Cha urged better regulation of the workforce ...
Cheang Sokha and Laignee Barron
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/migrants-flee-thai-instability