News
Loan agreement inked for Cambodia’s first garment training school
The Garment Manufacturer’s Association in Cambodia (GMAC) signed a $3.5 million loan agreement with French international development agency Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) yesterday to build Cambodia’s first garment sector training school. The school will train Cambodia’s unskilled garment workers and other Cambodians who wish to ...
Cambodian documentary makes Sundance Film Festival
Until the arrival of large-scale development around her home in the northeastern province of Ratanakkiri, Sav Samourn, a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, was frightened of wild animals and ghosts. But as trees disappeared and industrial machinery razed the forestland, the old fears fell away. ...
Faintings continue apace
More than 50 workers from four garment factories in the capital’s Vattanac Industrial Park 2 had fainted yesterday, police said, but a union representative put the figure at more than 200 – which is the number who collapsed at the same site just a day ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012111659771/National-news/faintings-continue-apace.html
Last Tai Yang Strikers Hoping for Resolution
Workers who were left stranded after protests at three Tai Yang Enterprises garment factories dragged on for months earlier this year were waiting for a long awaited resolution when they attended the arbitration yesterday. The 53 employees of the Kandal provincial factory, which supplies Levi’s and ...
Swedish outcry has royal voice in midst
Growing calls in Sweden for multinational clothing giant H&M to increase wages for Cambodian garment workers have taken a royal twist. Cambodia’s Prince Charin Norodom, 38, who has lived in Sweden for more than 30 years, told the Post yesterday that he had been working behind ...
Striking workers resign in trade-off
Tae Young factory workers have ended their strike demanding the reinstatement of 16 fired workers after the factory last week agreed to drop its legal complaints against eight of the 16 in return for the entire group’s official resignations. About 600 protesters began the strike at ...
H&M slammed over wages
Criticism has mounted against Swedish multinational clothing company H&M in its home country following a documentary released last week that sheds light on wages in its source factories in Cambodia. The episode of Swedish network TV4’s Kalla Fakta, or Cold Facts, focuses mainly on Cambodian garment ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102959442/National-news/ham-slammed-over-wages.html
Factory boss tried for crumpling moon pic
The Kandal Provincial Court yesterday tried and convicted a Chinese factory supervisor for damaging a photograph of the moon in which the likeness of the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk is believed to have been seen. Judge Lim Sokuntha said the court had sentenced Leav Kuyseang, ...
Factory Manager Handed Suspended Sentence
A Chinese garment factory manager was handed a three-month suspended sentence and released yesterday after she was found guilty of folding up a photograph of King Father Norodom Sihanouk in front of workers in Kandal province, officials said. Liv Kuy Chheang, 45, was charged with intentionally ...
Chinese Factory Manager Deported, Another Stands Trial
A Chinese garment factory manager was deported yesterday after she was given a one year suspended sentence for destroying a picture of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, officials said. The deportation took place as another Chinese factory manager, Liv Kuy Chheang, was charged by the ...
Second Factory Manager Arrested for Lese Majeste
A second Chinese garment factory manager was arrested yesterday for destroying a photograph of the late King Norodom Sihanouk, while the woman who destroyed pictures of the late monarch at the factory in Phnom Penh on Monday was convinced and given a one-year suspended sentence, officials said. Employed ...
Boss commits royal blunder
A Chinese factory manager sparked a near-riot in Phnom Penh yesterday morning after publicly destroying two photos of the late King Father in front of hundreds of workers. More than a thousand employees of the Top World garment factory launched an immediate strike, and threatened to ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012102359368/National-news/boss-commits-royal-blunder.html
Strikes put on pause for King Father
The Free Trade Union expects thousands of workers from across the country to join FTU president Chea Mony in paying respects to the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk on Tuesday. To make up for the lost day of work, workers will instead work on October ...
Holiday blues hit factories
Tens of thousands of garment workers will enjoy an early start to the Pchum Ben holiday today as they trek back to their homeland. Their excitement, however, is not shared by their bosses, who will be left to rue a week-long halt in production. Enterprise and establishment ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012101159238/National-news/holiday-blues-hit-factories.html
Ministry of Labor Launches Anti-Fainting Campaign
The Ministry of Labor on Sunday launched an educational campaign aimed at preventing further mass faintings in garment factories, a ministry official said yesterday. Meng Hong, director of the ministry’s inspection and legal affairs department, said that the campaign would target more than 30,000 garment workers ...
Workers given lesson in how not to faint
Education garment workers and their bosses on how to avoiding fainting is the latest strategy the Ministry of Labor is using to address a problem that has plagued the industry in the past two years, a ministry official said yesterday. Labor Ministry Secretary of State Oum Mean said he ...
Buyers Laud Renewal of Industrial Relations Agreement
As buyers for international clothing brands yesterday praised the renewal of an agreement aimed at reducing strikes in the garment sector, labor unions and factory owners said that only proper implementation would determine the agreement’s effectiveness. Modeled after an earlier pact from 2010 to prevent work ...
Strikes at two factories stretch into weekend
More than 600 workers from Kandal province’s Tae Young Co factory yesterday continued to strike, insisting on the return of 16 dismissed workers. Yesterday’s strikes came a day after the Kandal Provincial Court delayed questioning eight of the fired workers over charges that they incited an illegal ...
Striking the right balance
The number of strikes in Cambodia’s garment industry could be set to dip and workers could be on their way to free lunches after both sides of the industry signed a two-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) yesterday. The MoU – inked by the Garment Manufacturers Association (GMAC) in ...
Garment Exports to EU Catching Up With US
The value of garment and shoe exports to the European Union are expected to reach the same level as those sent to the U.S. by 2013, an official from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said yesterday. Garment, textile and shoe exports to the E.U. ...
Court Questions Unionist on Incitement Charges
The Kandal Provincial Court yesterday questioned labor leader Rong Chhun over allegations he incited garment factory workers to stage an illegal strike, a court official said. A director at the Tai Yang garment factory in Ang Snuol district- which supplies apparel to U.S. brands Levi Strauss, ...
Union boss grilled on incitement allegation
The president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions Rong Chhun appeared in Kandal Provincial Court for nearly three hours yesterday, fielding questions stemming from accusations of incitement and defamation, the union boss said. According to Chhun, his appearance was related to a complaint alleging that he had incited ...
Mind the wage gap
Most mornings, garment worker Vicheka buys food from the street vendors outside her factory in Kampong Chhnang province. The beef and pork dishes, she says, have a tendency to give workers a stomach ache – a reputation forged long before Vicheka and her co-workers at ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012092858979/National-news/mind-the-wage-gap.html
Negotiations Planned to Improve Relations in Garment Sector
Negotiations between the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) and unions over a landmark agreement aimed at reducing strike action will be held on October 3, representatives said yesterday. The original agreement on improving industrial relations in the garment sector was signed in October 2010 by ...