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Shouting their demands and trying to force their way through the gate, thousands of striking garment workers rallied in front of the Ministry of Social Affairs to no avail yesterday. The strikes came the morning after management posted a notice saying some 6,000 striking workers ...

A meeting between factory management and representatives of more than 5,000 striking workers at one of Asia’s largest garment-processing factories yielded no progress. Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, has called the strike illegal because workers failed to notify the company ...

The 8th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting for Social Welfare and Development will be held in Cambodia’s Siem Reap City from Sept. 3 to 7, according to a statement of Cambodia’s Ministry of Social Affairs released Thursday. ...

A month-long battle to secure back pay waged by 750 garment workers has ended only days before the national election – with the government footing the bill. The $450,000 payout to the Pine Great (Cambodia) factory workers – whose factory owner skipped town in April – ...

Social Affairs Ministry officials yesterday promised that about 750 workers from the shuttered Pine Great garment factory will receive their overdue salaries before the election. Yesterday Touch Somuth, a member of the Social Affairs Ministry committee formed to resolve the issue, said the committee was ...

Some 400 garment workers yesterday gathered outside the Ministry of Social Affairs to plead for government intervention against a factory owner who fled without paying them overdue wages three months ago. Khem Chamnan, a Free Trade Union representative from the Pine Great (Cambodia) factory in Phnom ...

Continuing its efforts to quell an increasing number of strikes in the Kingdom’s lucrative garment sector, the government this week issued a directive aimed at giving provincial and municipal governors powers to resolve issues at factories without calling on ministries in Phnom Penh. “To ensure further ...

When a 100-metre-long section of a Phnom Penh garment factory crumpled in on itself like a cheap pup tent, Sen Sok district officials promised an investigation. The results of that investigation, which was to have taken place more than a year ago, in March 2012, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday issued extensive orders to unions, factories, workers and authorities to rid the garment industry of violent strikes, roadblocks and rights violations he says are threatening public order. “There have been many strikes and demonstrations at factories recently, and, in some cases, ...

Former employees of the failed telecommunications company MFone have been told they can expect a decision next month on their claims for more than $4 million in compensation. Former Mfone section manager Bou Kunthea said after a meeting yesterday with offic-ials from the Ministry of Social ...

Union leaders asked garment workers to go on strike and demand the $100/month wage because the factory owners were not budging from their $75 stance. Rong Chhun, President of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, said “This was the last meeting and we couldn’t ...

About 300 former employees of bankrupt mobile phone operator Mfone continued to protest yesterday outside the company’s closed Phnom Penh offices, demanding severance payments totaling $4.4 million for 1,092 workers. But Vong Savan, deputy secretary-general of the Labor Dissolution Commission at the Ministry of Social ...

Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An yesterday said the government should clear beggars away from the country’s most popular tourism sites by providing them with decent education and legal ownership of their land. “We have performed well in working with homeless people, but I noticed ...

Unions and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) are unlikely to walk out of their final minimum wage meeting today with an agreed-upon increase for workers, industry insiders said yesterday. Both parties have reaffirmed their respective positions: GMAC secretary-general Ken Loo said yesterday that “nothing’s ...

Labour-rights groups are lauding a “historic” deal that will result in about $200,000 in wages and benefits being paid to workers who were stranded when the Kingsland Garment factory in Phnom Penh closed unannounced in December. In a meeting on Friday that took place as more ...

The ongoing story of garment workers left jobless by company closures in late December is fast becoming A Tale of Two Factories: one group of workers has everything before it, the other has nothing. It’s this widening gulf between workers at Yung Wah Industrial and Kingsland ...

Some 200 garment factory workers protested at the Ministry of Social Affairs on Friday, a day after they held a demonstration in front of the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh and urged diplomats to intervene in a labour dispute involving unpaid wages from a factory ...

Workers at the shuttered Yung Wah I and II factories in Kandal province will continue protesting today, despite the government already agreeing to pay them using company funds. Worker Soy Sokchea said yesterday that he and his colleagues would keep demanding benefits and seniority bonuses. ...

The Cambodian Confederation of Unions warned Thursday of a general strike if proposed increases in monthly salaries are too small. “Cambodia will have a big strike exploding across all clothing and footwear factories if minimum wages are raised by only 10 percent from the basic $61,” ...

More than 2,000 workers demonstrated in front of Phnom Penh’s Gladpeer Garment Factory yesterday, demanding a higher minimum wage and several other concessions. The workers decided to strike after the Por Sen Chey district factory did not respond to repeated requests to raise their monthly minimum ...

Some 200 garment workers who have been striking for two weeks traveled from their Kandal factory to the Ministry of Social Affairs yesterday to demand a resolution. Representatives met with officials to broker a sitdown for workers from the Master and Frank factory in Ang Snuol. “We ...

Amid threats of another mass strike in the thriving garment sector, the Ministry of Social Affairs has called a meeting with the industry’s leading players to discuss union demands for a $150-per-month minimum wage, a letter obtained yesterday reveals. At the behest of Prime Minister Hun ...

Hundreds of garment factory workers clashed with police at a factory in Phnom Penh yesterday during the latest strike in what is now a month-long campaign to have two union leaders rehired. The workers from Nex-T Apparel (Cambodia) Co. Ltd. in Dangkao district were striking in ...

Government spending next year will total more than $3 billion, a 16.2 percent increase from the $2.6 billion set aside for 2012, according to a draft of the national budget obtained Friday. The budget states that the government will allocate some $400 million, or 13.32 ...