News
Working group minimum wage vote due wednesday
A group of union leaders, factory owners and government representatives set up to negotiate a recommendation for a new minimum wage in the garment sector is due to meet Wednesday for a vote on a final figure, according to those involved in the talks. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/working-group-minimum-wage-vote-due-wednesday-71335/
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
Advisory group begins minimum wage talks
A new group that will advise the committee that advises the government on the minimum wage in the country’s garment sector began talking numbers Tuesday following a meeting Monday that laid out a code of conduct for the negotiations. ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/advisory-group-begins-minimum-wage-talks-70548/
No breakthrough in new talks for Cambodian minimum wage increase
Cambodian authorities have held two rounds of talks with garment factory owners and unions under a new mechanism to help break a deadlock over increasing the workers’ monthly minimum wage but to no avail. But Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said that he expected the Garment ...
Roseanne Gerin
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/working-group-10162014181856.html
Garment workers march for higher wages
More than 1,000 garment workers gathered in Phnom Penh and marched through the city center Sunday, demanding a “decent wage” from their factories, the largest garment-sector demonstration in the capital since military police fatally suppressed a protest for higher wages in January. ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-workers-march-in-push-for-higher-wages-69635/
Latest garment export figures show growth
Garment and footwear exports earned $3.92 billion over the first eight months of 2014, up more than 7 percent year-on-year, according to new figures from the Ministry of Commerce. The latest numbers show a slowdown after year-on-year earnings for the first six months of the year ...
Hul Reaksmey and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/latest-garment-export-figures-show-growth-69546/
Wage decision delayed
Minister of Labour Ith Sam Heng yesterday postponed his ministry’s Labour Advisory Committee’s decision on Cambodia’s garment sector minimum wage from Friday until next month, leaving some optimistic and others dubious. In the original schedule, the minimum wage for 2015 was slated to be set in ...
Sean Teehan and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-decision-delayed
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/
Unions, factories set positions on minimum wage raise
Unions and factories remained at odds over where to peg next year’s minimum wage for the garment sector after a meeting between representatives for both sides on Friday, though they agreed to resume the talks later in the month. Earlier this year, the Labor Advisory Committee, ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-factories-set-positions-on-minimum-wage-raise-66112/
Trade unions approve minimum wage, draft law proposals
Representatives from 25 trade unions Monday sent a request to the Ministry of Labor seeking several changes to a controversial draft union law and asking that a new $160 monthly minimum wage for the country’s volatile garment sector take effect in October. Garment factory owners say ...
Hul Reaksmey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/trade-unions-approve-minimum-wage-draft-law-proposals-64044/
Labor committee details schedule for wage talks: report
The Labor Advisory Committee has asked unions and employers to start separate internal talks on wages this month under a schedule it approved in June, an industry source says. In a report late Wednesday, Fibre2fashion.com said the 28-member committee had agreed that the talks would be ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MzMxODViNmRhMzh
Minister warns of poor checks at Thai border
Labor Minister Ith Sam Heng said Monday that Thai border officials may be letting Cambodian migrant workers back into Thailand with incomplete paperwork, opening them up to the same risks both countries have been trying to avoid since a mass exodus of Cambodian workers over ...
Phorn Bopha and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/minister-warns-of-poor-checks-at-thai-border-62852/
Factories mostly skip minimum wage meeting
Government officials and union representatives met behind closed doors Thursday to start hashing out a better way to set the minimum wage for the country’s all-important but troubled garment sector at a workshop brokered by the International Labor Organization (ILO). But what was supposed to be ...
Aun Pheap and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-mostly-skip-minimum-wage-meeting-57337/
Factory owners boycott wage talks for Cambodian garment workers
Garment factory owners failed to turn up for what was supposed to have been a tripartite meeting with the government and worker unions on Thursday to help break an impasse in negotiations to increase the minimum wage for workers, officials said. The International Labor Organization (ILO) ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/talks-04242014182701.html
Labor Ministry, ILO set out plan for minimum wage reforms
Facing public pressure from major garment brands and labor unions, the Ministry of Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO) will cooperate in the coming months to reform the current system of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector. The reform process will begin with ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-ministry-ilo-set-out-plan-for-minimum-wage-reforms-55869/
Cambodian Panel Begins to Grapple With Minimum Wage Reforms
Cambodia’s newly established government panel to investigate minimum wage reform held its first meeting Thursday to lay out a strategy for addressing the hot button issue, as union leaders announced plans to protest to back their demand for monthly salary increases for footwear and garment ...
Radio Free Asia News Staff
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/committee-02062014185924.html
Unions argue over wage committee reforms
Meeting for a minimum wage workshop on Tuesday, the country’s independent and government-aligned unions argued over reforms to the Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), the body in charge of setting the minimum wage in the garment sector, which employs some 600,000 workers. The LAC, which is composed ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-argue-over-wage-committee-reforms-51452/
Unions Want Government, Factories to Resume Wage Talks
The unions behind several days of strikes that turned deadly this month said they will officially ask the Labor Ministry today to resume negotiations on a new minimum wage for the country’s critical garment sector, and said they would hold more street protests if their ...
Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-want-government-factories-to-resume-wage-talks-50451/
Sabrina workers out after months in jail
Eight unionists locked in prison in Kampong Speu province since violent clashes at the Sabrina Garment factory in May and June were released on bail yesterday, court and union officials said. Cheum Rithy, a provincial judge, said he had decided to release the eight Free Trade ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/sabrina-workers-out-after-months-jail
Labor committee announces minimum wage
The Labor Advisory Committee issued a joint statement on the decision to raise wages from $61 to $80 per month for garment and footwear workers. The statement was announced Friday, after a meeting between factory employers, union leaders and Labor Minister, Vong Soth. The wage provision ...
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=MTc2MjI0Y2JlMjV
In Garment Sector, a Labor Movement Divided
There was so much noise blasting from the loudspeakers that the occasional rallying cry from striking workers at the demonstration in Phnom Penh’s Dangkao district last week could hardly be heard. One 2-meter high stack of amplifiers had been set up outside the Nex-T factory and ...