News
Labor groups press ministry on new union registration rules
About 100 workers representing eight trade unions and labor associations rallied in front of the Ministry of Labor on Sunday demanding that the government relax registration requirements that they say are being used to stifle efforts to increase their memberships. ... ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/labor-groups-press-ministry-on-new-union-registration-rules-71009/
No background checks on exam monitors: ACU
None of the more than 5,000 independent observers recruited for this year’s national exams had background checks or their identity verified before they were allowed into testing centres, an official said yesterday. During this year’s newly reformed and cleaned-up grade 12 exam, the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) ...
Pech Sotheary and Laignee Barron
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/no-background-checks-exam-monitors-acu
City bans pair of marches
City Hall has banned street marches for World Teachers’ Day and World Housing Rights Day, ordering participants to confine their activities to Freedom Park instead. ... World Teachers’ Day and World Housing Rights Day occur on October 5 and 6, respectively. Planners for both expressed disappointment ...
Taing Vida
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/city-bans-pair-marches
Ministry simplifies teacher salary payments
Teachers will receive their base salaries and additional benefits in a single package starting later this month, in an effort to simplify the payment process and avoid confusion, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron said Wednesday. Health, risk and rural bonuses will all be folded into teachers’ ...
Eang Mengleng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/ministry-simplifies-teacher-salary-payments-67860/
Cambodian labor unions lower minimum wage demands
Cambodian labor unions this week lowered their demands for a 60 percent increase to the country’s $100 minimum wage, as talks loom next month on setting a new wage.Unions agreed to call for $150 a month during a meeting with officials from the Garment Manufacturers’ ...
Lauren Crothers
http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/171407/cambodian-labor-unions-lower-minimum-wage-demands.html
Rights group urges Cambodia to drop case against six unionists
A human rights group on Thursday urged authorities in Cambodia to end the prosecution of six trade unionists accused of stoking violent clashes between protesting workers and security forces, calling the case against them “politically motivated.” New York-based Human Rights Watch said prominent activists Pav Sina, ...
Joshua Lipes
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/cambodia/unionists-09042014181530.html
Union leader says charges baseless
One of six union leaders charged and summonsed for questioning over a strike that ended in government forces shooting dead at least five people in January has sent a message to authorities to hurry up and get his hearing over with. ... ...
Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/union-leader-says-charges-baseless
Hun Sen announces raises for teachers, nurses
Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday announced a three-stage plan to raise the salaries of civil servants working under the Education and Health ministries, with the first increase to come in September. Speaking to graduating students at Beltei University in Phnom Penh, Mr. Hun Sen said that ...
Khy Sovuthy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hun-sen-announces-raises-for-teachers-nurses-67017/
Unions say gov’t blocking branch registrations
In March, the Ministry of Labor for the first time began requiring union leaders to submit proof they had no previous criminal convictions before they would be allowed to register a new union or local branch. Now, the country’s leading unions say worker representatives are struggling ...
Mech Dara
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/unions-say-govt-blocking-branch-registrations-66958/
Education ministry sets date for high school re-examination
The Ministry of Education announced that high school students who failed the national exam will get their second chance to pass the test on October 13 and 14 following a decision by Prime Minister Hun Sen to hold a re-sit of the exam amid reports ...
Hay Pisey
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/education-ministry-sets-date-for-high-school-re-examination-66697/
Solo act taking its toll
It was difficult enough for Savoeurn Dimang when, until a month ago, he was one of just three teachers running the local primary school in Kors Kralor district’s Samrong Leu village. But now, with one teacher having left for South Korea and the other bowing out ...
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/solo-act-taking-its-toll
To stop leaks, exam papers to be given to only one teacher
Copies of grade 12 examination papers will only be provided to a single teacher for each subject this year in order to identify the source of leaks, said Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron during a speech on Saturday. Mr. Naron, speaking at the American University of ...
Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/to-stop-leaks-exam-papers-to-be-given-to-only-one-teacher-59555/
Benefits for teachers? Not yet
The government has a response to teachers’ request for health insurance: We’ll provide it if you buy it. At a meeting in Takeo province this past weekend, the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association (CITA) said an upcoming teacher strike would include health insurance on the list of ...
Laignee Barron and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/benefits-teachers-not-yet
Overtime at school goes unpaid
Six months after the government announced that bank accounts for all civil servants would put an end to late salaries and rampant graft, secondary school teachers in Prey Veng say they are owed long overdue payments. In addition to their regular salary, which they already received, ...
Laignee Barron and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/overtime-school-goes-unpaid
Union leader in West seeking release of jailed activists
Rong Chhun, head of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions, is making a trip through the US, seeking support to help free 21 labor activists who have been in jail since deadly crackdowns on demonstrations in January. His visit comes as another labor leader, Ath Thun, was ...
Sok Khemara
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/union-leader-in-west-seeking-release-of-jailed-activists/1888813.html
Exam proctors promised pay boost
The Ministry of Education is promising to pay national exam proctors double the fees earned last year in its newest move to stymie widespread bribes exchanged for exam answers or inflated scores. Previously, proctors earned an average salary of 190, 000 riel ($47.50) over the three-day ...
Chhay Channyda, P.4
http://phnompenhpost.com
New policy to combat corruption in schools
The Education Ministry will reconfigure how it ranks high school graduates seeking placement at state universities as part of its campaign to promote accountability in the school system, Education Minister Hang Chuon Naron announced on Friday. Delivering closing remarks at the Education Ministry’s annual meeting, Mr. ...
Kuch Naren and Emily Wilkins
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/new-policy-to-combat-corruption-in-schools-54886/
Freedom Park off-limits: city
Freedom Park will remain off limits indefinitely for protesters, authorities said yesterday, despite Prime Minister Hun Sen suggesting last month that a ban on public assembly was being lifted. Pich Saroeun, chief of Russey Keo district’s Chroy Changva commune, said Phnom Penh Governor Pa Socheatvong had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/freedom-park-limits-city
Minority of unions still strike
A small number of workers from four union groups took part in a stay-at-home-strike yesterday, union leaders said, after mass industrial action was postponed the day before. Cambodian Confederation of Unions president Rong Chhun said members of his union from a “small amount” of factories had ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/minority-unions-still-strike
Strike may be shifted to post-holiday date
A stay-at-home garment strike scheduled for tomorrow is in doubt after a number of workers and unionists urged that it be postponed until after the Khmer New Year, a union leader said yesterday. Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said some ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/strike-may-be-shifted-post-holiday-date
Sar Kheng bans rally, gives police $54K in bonuses
Interior Minister Sar Kheng on Friday warned that a union-led public forum scheduled for Freedom Park on Saturday morning would not be allowed to proceed, adding that a fresh wave of union marches next week are also banned. The security minister’s comments came during a talk ...
Khuon Narim
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/sar-kheng-bans-rally-gives-police-54k%E2%80%88in-bonuses-53735/
28 complaints filed against protest union leaders
28 complaints have been filed against labor union leaders who led and allegedly incited protests from December last year to January 5, 2014, said factory representative on Tuesday. ... ...
The Cambodia Herald News Staff
http://www.thecambodiaherald.com/cambodia/detail/1?page=13&token=Zjg3MTNmZTVjZWE
Unions plan forum
The leaders of 18 unions and union confederations this week will invite ruling and opposition party members to take part in a public forum where labour relations issues will be discussed. Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), yesterday said the letters have ...
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/unions-plan-forum
Education system out of its depth
When Sim Sok Toeur, 32, returned from study in Australia last April, he did so with a vision for Phnom Penh’s skyline. ... For Sok Toeur, a scholarship to study overseas granted him a better quality of education than was possible in Cambodia – even though ...
Maria Wirth
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/education-system-out-its-depth