News
Garment workers to be reimbursed
The Ministry of Labour on Tuesday released the names of four factories whose workers will be compensated after their employers absconded owing back pay and severance. Labour Minister Ith Sam Heng said abandoned workers at Benoh Apparel, Yu Fa Garment Industry, Great Honour Textile Factory ...
Yon Sineat and Daphne Chen
https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/garment-workers-be-reimbursed
Cambodia's factories improving, report finds
The latest Better Factories Cambodia report has found that 47 per cent of 381 assessed factories complied with its most important working conditions – up from 28 per cent in 2014. ...
Ananth Baliga and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodias-factories-improving-report-finds
With job cuts on horizon, factory’s staff walks
Roughly 2,000 workers from the Malaysian-owned Global Apparels Limited garment factory in Phnom Penh went on strike yesterday after the factory announced it would be reducing staff numbers by 500 over the coming months, union representatives said yesterday. ...
Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/job-cuts-horizon-factorys-staff-walks
Bavet city SEZs close amid violent protests
Two economic zones in Svay Rieng province’s Bavet City closed down on Thursday, sending some 30,000 workers home over what local officials said were violent protests by groups of workers demanding higher wages. ...
Kang Sothear
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/bavet-city-sezs-close-amid-violent-protests-103351/
H&M to step up monitoring of local suppliers
H&M and global union federation IndustriALL on Tuesday signed off on a deal aimed at improving conditions for the 1.6 million workers at the 1,900 factories around the world filling orders for the Swedish clothing giant that will include a new oversight committee in Cambodia. ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/hm-to-step-up-monitoring-of-local-suppliers-99405/
Union agrees to stop protests; factory to set aside complaint
Demonstrations surrounding the establishment of a new union at a garment factory in Kompong Speu province ended Monday after management dropped their complaint against two jailed workers in exchange for protesters agreeing to return to their jobs, a court official and unionists said. ...
Ben Sokhean
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/union-agrees-to-stop-protests-factory-to-set-aside-complaint-98387/
Survey of garment workers’ expenses to come
Hoping to help fill the void in reliable data that has stymied past negotiations on the minimum wage for the country’s garment workers, an international team of labor rights groups Monday hired a local research firm to find out exactly how much the workers are ...
Zsombor Peter
https://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/survey-of-garment-workers-expenses-to-come-89657/
Climate change costs growing
The economic impact of climate change in Cambodia could be highly damaging to rural areas and worker productivity, according to a report from American development agency USAID, which applied climate projections for 2050 to today’s Mekong Basin economies. ...
Charles Rollet
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/climate-change-costs-growing
GMAC claims on true wages ‘exaggerated’
The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) said in a statement this week that under the new minimum wage workers can actually earn up to $250 per month, though others were quick to label the figure exaggerated. The Ministry of Labour last week approved the new ...
Mom Kunthear and Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/gmac-claims-true-wages-%E2%80%98exaggerated%E2%80%99
Union proposal for minimum wage scrapped in Cambodia
Activists have decried a decision by the Ministry of Labour to disregard union pleas for a hike in the minimum wage for some of the country’s 500,000 garment workers, one warning that it could lead to civil unrest. The unions’ wage proposal received only seven ...
World Bulletin News Staff
http://www.worldbulletin.net/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia/147476/union-proposal-for-minimum-wage-scrapped-in-cambodia
Factory’s workers ordered back
Thousands of employees at Grand Twins International, Cambodia’s only publicly listed garment factory, will be back at the assembly line today after nearly two weeks on strike, accepting a court order to return to work. Workers will follow the order the Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued ...
Sean Teehan and Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/factory%E2%80%99s-workers-ordered-back
Garment factories, unions edge closer to wage deal
Some of the unions that have been demanding a hefty $77 raise to the current monthly minimum wage of $100 for the country’s garment workers said Thursday they were willing to go as low as a $35 increase, though others refused to budge. ...
Mech Dara and Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/garment-factories-unions-edge-closer-to-wage-deal-70154/
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
Poverty line $120, gov’t says
Workers in Cambodia’s capital earning less than $120 per month are living below the poverty line, according to the Ministry of Planning’s own calculation. At a September 17 workshop on the garment industry minimum wage, International Labor Organization Cambodia national director Tun Sophorn cited Ministry of ...
Sean Teehan
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/poverty-line-120-gov%E2%80%99t-says
Mass firing at Xin Fang factory
In a mass firing the scale of which has not been seen since January, Phnom Penh’s Xin Fang garment factory yesterday terminated 106 employees for protesting in front of the factory. Management at the Por Sen Chey district factory on Thursday already sacked nearly 30 striking ...
Mom Kunthear
http://phnompenhpost.com/national/mass-firing-xin-fang-factory
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/
Wages do not compute: ILO
NGOs say the Ministry of Labour’s use of its own method for determining the garment industry’s minimum wage is risking a repeat of the tensions that exploded in violent protests in January, when authorities killed at least five people. More than six months after the Labour ...
Sean Teehan
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/wages-do-not-compute-ilo
After deal, unions expect support
News of an end to a year-long political deadlock has labour union leaders believing the opposition party can bring their interests to parliament, but a lack of follow-through could cost the Cambodia National Rescue Party vital support from one of its key interest groups. Different union ...
Sean Teehan, Mom Kunthear and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/after-deal-unions-expect-support
Brands dodge blame over substandard factory
Behind the walls of the nondescript Hung Tak garment factory on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, more than 400 workers have been toiling in substandard conditions to cut and stitch clothing for some of the world’s biggest brands. But since the factory was named by the ...
Holly Robertson and Sun Heng
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/brands-dodge-blame-over-substandard-factory-64606/
A factory or family dilemma
Being placed on consecutive short-term contracts in Cambodia’s predominantly female-staffed garment sector is forcing many women to choose between a family and a factory job, unionists and rights groups said yesterday. Ken Chenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, said many ...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-or-family-dilemma