Labor

The Government’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force have busted a Phnom Penh child labor ring, following a two-month investigation after a tip-off from the Khmer Times. The children would work all  night selling fruit around the city, before returning to the tiny house in Chbar Ampov around ...

Most striking bus drivers returned to work on 16 September following two days of wildcat strikes that saw hundreds walk off the job in response to an increase in traffic fines. The drivers were cajoled back onto their buses by owners, but many said they would launch ...

Lao ministries and various related sectors have been unable to resolve the chronic shortage of labour for garment factories amid growing concern within the local industry. An official from the Association of the Lao Garment Industry, who asked not to be named, told Vientiane Times on ...

Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to build a wall along their common border next year amid growing concerns about human trafficking. The 640-kilometer Malaysia-Thailand border has long been the site of transnational crime, including the rampant smuggling of weapons, drugs, and people. Keep reading ...

Children employed in Thailand’s seafood processing industry are more exposed to workplace hazards such as fire or gas, and twice as likely to be injured than minors working in other industries, experts said on 14 September. Under Thai law, the minimum age of employment is 15 ...

A group of independent unions say they will push for a new monthly minimum wage of $207 for garment workers when three-way negotiations with the government and factories begin in earnest next week. Keep reading ...

Measures to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices should be accompanied by rigorous labour protection measures, activists said on 9 September at a Chulalongkorn University seminar. Following the European Union’s final warning — a yellow card issued to Thailand in late April — the government has rolled ...

More than 1000 factory workers have lost their job in the wake of the new minimum wage, according to the Ministry of Labour. Just one factory has so far closed however. U Maung Maung Hlaing, head of the Labour Laws Inspection Department in Hlaing Tharyar township, said ...

In a strongly worded defence of the proposed trade union law, employer association CAMFEBA released a position paper on 2 September claiming the law would curb instances of illegal strikes and a proliferation of minority unions, which it says is needed to harmonise the country’s troubled ...

Young workers employed in Phnom Penh’s expansive informal economy may find it easy to get a job, but they face a high likelihood of labor abuses and receive significantly less pay than their peers in the formal sector, according to a study released over the ...