News
Maid tells of abuse faced in Saudi Arabia
After two weeks stuck inside an immigration office in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh, a Cambodian domestic worker returned to Phnom Penh yesterday without assistance from the Cambodian government – on a plane ticket she says was paid for by Saudi immigration police. ...
Vandy Muong and Audrey Wilson
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maid-tells-abuse-faced-saudi-arabia
Int’l Union report ranks Kingdom in bottom ten
Cambodia made the list of the 10 worst countries in terms of labour rights, according to a report released last week by the International Trade Union Confederation. ...
Bun Sengkong and Igor Kossov
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/intl-union-report-ranks-kingdom-bottom-ten
IFC banking on smart graduates
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has provided a $13 million loan to support a higher education campus for the Acleda Institute of Business that will help raise education standards, enhance students’ employability and encourage sustainable economic growth. ...
Sum Manet
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25667/ifc-banking-on-smart-graduates/
Governments halt migration to Thailand for four months
The Cambodian government has agreed to a request from the Thai Labor Ministry to temporarily block migrant workers from traveling to Thailand for the next four months as it conducts a census into migrants in the country, according to a statement released on Thursday. ...
Sek Odom and George Wright
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/governments-halt-migration-to-thailand-for-four-months-111634/
Labour ministry eyes minimum wage law
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. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/labour-ministry-eyes-minimum-wage-law
Maid to return from Saudi Arabia as deal nears
Consular officials yesterday were working to repatriate a Cambodian maid fleeing what she described as unfair working conditions in Saudi Arabia, even as Cambodia’s minister of labour was en route to seal a long-awaited deal to open a pipeline of workers to the Gulf nation. ...
Charles Rollet and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/maid-return-saudi-arabia-deal-nears
Workers from shuttered garment factory demand wages
More than 500 garment workers from a shuttered garment factory in the capital’s Dangkor district are demanding their salaries after the firm’s owner ran away.According to its website, the Chinese-owned Muse Garment (Cambodia) Factory Limited produced pants and shorts exclusively for the European market. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/workers-shuttered-garment-factory-demand-wages
‘Skills gap’ remains an impediment to growth, new report says
Cambodia must tackle the skills gap to boost the productivity of its labor force in order to grow its economy, according to the latest report. ...
Hean Socheata
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/skills-gap-remains-an-impediment-to-growth-new-report-says/3156042.html
Compromise remains elusive in minimum wage negotiations
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. ...
Mech Dara
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/compromise-remains-elusive-in-minimum-wage-negotiations-96839/
Gov’t, factories, Unions to vote on minimum wage today
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. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-factories-unions-to-vote-on-minimum-wage-today-96684/
Deadline for wage negotiations missed; Labor Ministry to decide
The tripartite Labor Advisory Committee (LAC) on Monday missed its provisional deadline to decide on a new minimum wage for the garment sector, with employers and trade unions making little progress in coming to an agreement. ...
Khuon Narim
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/deadline-for-wage-negotiations-missed-labor-ministry-to-decide-96513/
Gov’t tells Unions to pick a minimum wage or lose their say
The Labor Ministry on Tuesday warned unions that if they failed to reach a consensus on a new minimum wage for the garment sector ahead of Friday’s Labor Advisory Committee meeting on the issue, the committee would not consider any proposal from the unions at ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-tells-unions-to-pick-a-minimum-wage-or-lose-their-say-95155/
Informal workers find jobs easy, conditions poor
Young workers employed in Phnom Penh’s expansive informal economy may find it easy to get a job, but they face a high likelihood of labor abuses and receive significantly less pay than their peers in the formal sector, according to a study released over the ...
Aun Chhengpor and Janelle Retka
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/informal-workers-find-jobs-easy-conditions-poor-93174/
Cambodian workers in limbo as Qatar drags heels on safety standards
The Cambodian government is working on an agreement with the Qatari government that would allow Cambodians to join the thousands of migrant workers helping to build the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. As a safety measure, the Cambodian government has requested that Qatar guarantee ...
Jonathan Cox
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/14391/cambodian-workers-in-limbo-as-qatar-drags-heels-on-safety-standards/
Post-election work ‘diplomacy at its best’: US
The U.S. State Department said in congressional testimony on Thursday that its involvement in ending the political deadlock following the 2013 election was “diplomacy at its best,” and also claimed partial credit for this year’s raise in garment worker wages and the release of activists ...
Colin Meyn and Kuch Naren
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/post-election-work-diplomacy-at-its-best%E2%80%88us-85492/
High number of migrant workers create political, economic challenges
There are now more than 1 million estimated Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand. This could be a threat to Cambodia’s economy and politics in the future, an analyst says. ...
Men Kimseng
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/high-number-of-migrant-workers-create-political-economic-challenges/2667562.html
PM takes to stump on legal limit to overtime
Prime Minister Hun Sen broached the long-running issue of excessive overtime worked by garment factory employees in a speech yesterday, in what at least one analyst saw as a possible play for garment worker support. During his commencement speech at the National University of Management, the ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/pm-takes-stump-legal-limit-overtime
Wage wait: Unionists not impressed with promise
Labor leaders sniffed at the government’s stated commitment yesterday to hike the wage in the garment industry to $160 – by 2018. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-wait-unionists-not-impressed-promise
Maid agreement looms
Under an agreement with Malaysia, Cambodian migrant workers will be allowed to hold on to their passports and copies of their contracts but will be banned from any “political activities”, according to a draft version of the document obtained by the Post. The memorandum of understanding ...
Alice Cuddy
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/maid-agreement-looms
Cambodian garment unions threaten strike after wage demand is voted down
Cambodian unions have warned of possible strikes after a tripartite working group voted down their demand for a U.S. $40 increase in the monthly minimum wage for garment factory workers. Twenty-seven representatives of unions, factory owners and the government decided in a secret vote in Phnom ...
Roseanne Gerin
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/garment-workers-wages-10302014185252.html
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
Malaysia workers organise
Dissatisfied by wages at home, thousands of Cambodians have been lured to Malaysia by the promise of bigger pay cheques, but while many have found themselves subjected to long hours, unpaid wages, unsafe working conditions and even physical abuse, they have – until now – ...
Alice Cuddy and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/malaysia-workers-organise
Lure of South Korea is strong
Cambodian migrant worker hopefuls have heard murmurs about the poor work conditions in South Korea. However, they remain unfazed – even the recent reports of long hours and abusive employers are doing little to deter their quest to secure better wages abroad. ...
Laignee Barron and Pech Sotheary
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/lure-south-korea-strong
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