The Labor Advisory Committee of Cambodia (LAC) recently stated that in order to coordinate the wage conflicts between employers and workers in garment factories, discussions will be held among stakeholders in the next three months, and a final decision will be made in October The establishment of the minimum wage has been completed before. The next minimum wage adjustment for garment workers is expected to take effect from January 1, 2015.
According to Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC), LAC has only decided on the timing of the minimum wage adjustment, but has not yet begun to discuss the extent of the increase. In the past nine months, Cambodia’s garment industry has had two minimum wage adjustments. In February this year, the Cambodian Ministry of Labor proposed to increase the monthly minimum wage to US$100 per month, but the union asked the government to increase the minimum wage to US$160 per month for Cambodia’s 500,000 garment workers.
Wage issues have led to frequent strikes in Cambodia’s garment industry. A research report on working conditions and respect for workers’ rights in 371 garment and footwear factories in Cambodia showed that the number of strikes between May 2013 and April 2014 increased by 5% compared with the same period of the previous year. The 31st comprehensive report of the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s Better Factories Cambodia Program shows that the proportion of factories on strike in Cambodia increased from 19% to 24% last year.
