Labor policy and administration
Safety at work
Garment worker pageant troubles critics
Cambodia’s Ministry of Labour is bringing back a beauty pageant for garment workers, which unions and commentators have deemed a “regressive” distraction from deep-seeded inequalities in the sector. Keep reading ...
Two director generals fired after jade probe
A three-month investigation into dodgy dealings in the murky jade industry has netted dozens of government officials, with two director generals dismissed from their posts earlier this week. The President’s Office on 3 March confirmed that the director generals from two Union government ministries, as well as ...
Armed Chinese threaten Lao banana workers
Armed Chinese guards are forcing Lao workers in the country’s northern Oudomxay province to labor in banana plantations contaminated with dangerous chemicals, local sources tell RFA’s Lao Service. A chief of the Nongbouadeang village in the province’s Houn district told RFA that 50 Lao workers in ...
Quarry incident raises alarm for work safety
When rescue workers retrieved the last body from a collapsed quarry in Yen Lam District, Thanh Hoa Province on 23 January, it raised the total number of work-related deaths in the central province to 20 since the beginning of 2016. The quarry collapse itself led ...
Ho Chi Minh City cleans up the workplace
Workplace safety and hygiene improved slightly at Ho Chi Minh City companies last year, according to the city Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health. Speaking at a meeting held to review labour safety and hygiene on 20 January, Pham Thi Ngoc Loan, the centre’s deputy head, ...
Migrant fishermen to be cremated in Thailand
A group of Cambodian migrant fishermen is preparing to cremate five colleagues in Thailand’s southern Ranong province after they were struck by a mystery illness while working on a commercial fishing vessel in the Indian Ocean, an official said on 18 January. Cheam Lamatin, the labor ...
Seafood giant TU steps up worker protection
Thai Union Group Plc, one of the world’s largest seafood producers, will stop using subcontractors for shrimp pre-processing and will bring all operations in-house in order to improve worker protection. “From 1 January 2016 onwards, all processing work will be directly controlled by Thai Union, ensuring ...
US to review Thai trade benefits after labour complaint
The United States will review Thailand’s eligibility for trade benefits after complaints that the country is not properly protecting workers’ rights, the US Trade Representative said. Keep reading ...
Migrants processing Thai chicken exports abused, exploited— Researchers
Migrants processing Thai chicken for its biggest export market, Europe, face widespread abuse by their employers, partly because foreign auditors have focused on food safety rather than workers’ conditions, researchers said on 25 November. Chicken is set to become the world’s most consumed meat, within the ...
Nestlé report details labor abuses on Thai 'slave ships'
Nestle, the world’s largest food company, has acknowledged that it is almost certain that seafood bought from Thailand by itself and other large Western firms is produced by what are effectively modern-day slaves, many of them Cambodian. In a report, released by Nestlé on 23 November, ...
