News
July set for minimum wage talks
A series of talks will be held next month to discuss the future of minimum wages in the footwear and garment industries, with their findings to be announced and enforced early next year, according to Ministry of Labor officials. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25734/july-set-for-minimum-wage-talks/
Gov’t claims strikes upending industry
A senior official at the Labor Ministry said strikes and protests were “disrupting” investment in the garment sector and claimed that some unions, and even some employers, were not respecting the rights and freedoms afforded to workers by the Labor Law and international labor conventions. ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.khmertimeskh.com/news/25622/gov---t-claims-strikes-upending-industry/
Harsh restrictions imposed on union leader
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday ordered embattled union leader Ath Thorn to stay away from the SL garment factory and its workers and to avoid any public gatherings that could “damage public order,” drawing a tight circle around one of the country’s most ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/harsh-restrictions-imposed-on-union-leader-57067/
Wage-setting meet up in air
Exactly who will participate in a workshop to set the minimum wage in the garment sector with the Ministry of Labour this week remained unclear yesterday, with some key figures saying they had not yet been invited. During the workshop, to be held on Thursday and ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wage-setting-meet-air
Major Brands Confront Cambodian Leader Over Use of Force
A coalition of 30 brands and three global unions have sent a letter to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen calling for an investigation into the recent use of deadly force against striking garment-sector workers. The letter, dated Friday, urged the government to launch a new process ...
Kate O'keeffe and Sun Narin
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579330201431431652?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304027204579330201431431652.html
Gov’t Unveils Legal Plan to Break Garment Industry Strike
As mass demonstrations by garment factory workers continued Monday, the government laid out plans to bring an end to the labor unrest within the next three days, including suing union leaders in the courts and mobilizing security forces to take unspecified action. Signed by Council ...
Aun Pheap and Colin Meyn
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/govt-unveils-legal-plan-to-break-garment-industry-strike-49763/
Cambodia Falls Short as Garment-Industry Model
This small Southeast Asian country was supposed to become a model for the world apparel industry, with tough factory monitoring and strong worker protections. But a dozen years after the United Nations’ International Labour Organization launched a program to manage Cambodia’s booming garment trade—the first of ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324423904578521240151597504.html
Factories Asked to Voluntarily Assess Safety
The Garment Manufactures Association of Cambodia (GMAC) and International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia yesterday asked factory owners to voluntarily conduct structural audits on their buildings in light of building collapses at two garment factories that killed two people and injured 23. “In the ...
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factories-asked-to-voluntarily-assess-safety-27319/
At 10th Anniversary, Arbitration Council Faces Funding Shortage
The Arbitration Council, an independent body that resolves labor disputes in Cambodia’s garment sector, celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, though officials expressed concern that funding for the body was due to run out in March next year. Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of ...
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said. The hall, which is part of Top World Garment ...
Maid nightmares retold
A Cambodia migrant worker who was at times threatened at knifepoint, tied up or punched in the head by her employer yesterday revealed her chilling experience of the labour recruitment industry. Following her testimony via video link, broadcast at Sam Rainsy Party headquarters, opposition parliamentarian ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011082651282/National-news/labour-nightmares-retold.html
90 Garment Factory Workers Faint Over Two-Day Period
About 90 garment factory workers fainted over a two-day period last week at Zhen Tai garment factory in Sen Sok district’s Phnom Penh Thmei commune, union officials and police said yesterday, though accounts of what caused the mass fainting differed. Thirty workers first fainted on ...
June textile workers get paid
Thousands of workers who were sacked after part of the June Textile garment factory burned down in March are finally receiving severance payments and other awards following a ruling from the Arbitration Council. Taing Kisay, an administration assistant at the factory, said yesterday that more ...
Unions unite on draft law
7 unions working together have said that they refuse to support a union law that has been drafted as the government has ignored their recommendations. The potential legislation is said to be prohibitively restrictive and the unions have said they will boycott by organizing peaceful ...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011070850278/National-news/unions-unite-on-draft-law.html