Cambodian Premier Welcomes International Labour Day, Calling for Proper Study on Minimum Wage

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen has called on all concerned parties and institutions to conduct proper and thorough study to set a minimum wage in the textile, garment and footwear sector.

In his recent message welcoming the 128th International Labor Day (May 01), the prime minister urged the concerned government ministries and departments, the associations of employers and employees, trade unions, relevant non-governmental and international organizations to make efforts in conducting the study by considering the comprehensive economic, legal and social aspects in developing technical methods for setting minimum wage in the textile, garment and footwear sector.

He also requested the Labor Advisory Committee, the concerned expert agencies and all stakeholders and international organizations to participate in the comprehensive consultations aimed at building transparency, trust and stability and reducing conflicts in the garment industry so as to create harmony between the workers and employers.

Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen also called for further improving the working conditions, and strengthening the implementation of labour law, law on social security regime, law on the protection and promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities and relevant regulations and international conventions.

He recommended the preparation and implementation of a single labor inspection mechanism at the same time, using the same evaluation standards aimed at improving the quality, transparency and efficiency of the inspection works and reducing the burden on employers in order to strengthen harmony of professional relationship, to raise awareness about the legal rights and obligations of workers and employers, to increase effective measures to prevent and resolve conflicts peacefully, and especially to avoid public disorder and the use of violence, which would lead to the loss of benefits to all parties, including national society.

He further urged to strengthen and improve the occupational health and safety system, focusing especially on environmental sanitation, nutrition and healthcare services at the workplace and health check-up to prevent infectious diseases; to strengthen and expand the freedom of trade unions and professional organizations to prevent discrimination by speeding up the passage of the law on trade unions and enhancing efficiency and transparency of the professional organization registration procedures.

He also suggested that the employees, workers, young people and parents should take the opportunities to send their children to get vocational training to improve the skills, production capacity, competition and the capacity to get into the labor market quickly and easily, and to be ready to take the maximum advantage from the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015.

He also appealed to people who wish to find a job to use the employment service of the national employment and labor agencies to obtain information about all kinds of employment opportunities and get the jobs quickly and less time-consuming and to avoid the illegal and risky migration to work abroad.

Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen also said that the fifth-mandate Royal Government of Cambodia, which was born from the national election on July 28, 2013, has continued to focus on the main priorities to create better jobs, especially for young people, approximately 300,000 per year because the employment is a key factor in determining the standard of living and effective way to alleviate poverty.

The benefits from the rapid economic growth has been allotted to people through the increase in new better jobs, especially in the sectors other than agriculture, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen pointed out, adding that in the field of textiles, garments and footwear alone, the 960 factories employ some 630,000 workers. Besides working in the country, more than 100,000 workers were sent officially to work abroad, which brought in the average income of over US$300 million per year.

This makes unemployment rate across the country decrease significantly to only 2.7 percent, especially among the youth. The poverty rate has rapidly been reduced as well from 47.8 percent in 2007 to 19.8 percent in 2011, he said.

Moreover, the growing of well-organized economy is abase that enables the government to improve the working conditions and health of workers and employees. As an evidence, Cambodia as a member of the International Labor Organizations (ILO) has ratified 13 international conventions, with eight of them being core conventions, which basically reflect international evaluation and recognition that Cambodia is a country that consistently applies international labor standards, he underlined.

Better employment plans in Cambodia have continued from 2014 to 2016,Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said, affirming that the increments of minimum wage were made 9 times in the past 10 years, from US$40 to US$100 per month, and more employment opportunities have been increased for women and people with disabilities and vulnerable persons; while the heavy form of child labor has also been reduced remarkably from a previous total of 20,520 children.

Rights and freedom of professional organizations of workers, employees and employers are upheld in accordance with the laws and regulations and currently there are 2,891 registered trade unions, an increase by 71.4 percent as compared to 2009.

In order to improve the productivity, competitive wages of workers, employees and labor force of Cambodia as well as to provide the second opportunities for young people who dropped out of schools, the Royal Government of Cambodia has provided more resources to build vocational training centers in every province and municipality, which from 2009 to 2013 provided training for some 633,450 students.

As of December 2013, in the garment and textile and footwear sector, there were increases of up to 960 factories that employed about 620,000 workers with a total monthly wage of US$70 million, amounting to approximately US$870 million in a year. The value of total exports increases every year since 2008, from nearly US$2.8 billion to US$4.6 billion in 2013.

Sourced: AKP