Labor
Mission to Seafarers expands with new center in Myanmar
The city of Yangon in Myanmar is home to the Mission to Seafarers’ newest port facility. The Anglican mission agency’s newest mission centre was dedicated on 28 February during a service at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Yangon (formerly known as Rangoon). The new facility is located ...
ASEAN integration fuelling trafficking, crime
Southeast Asia is witnessing an explosion of organised crime thanks to increasing economic integration, according to a new United Nations report. The illegal trafficking of people, drugs, counterfeit goods and wildlife is already estimated to exceed US$100 billion a year – more than the GDP of ...
Thai officials return local migrants
Thailand will send 77 illegal Cambodian migrant workers home on 19 February after they were rounded up at a construction site in the southern peninsula of the country, border authorities said on 18 February. Sin Nam Yong, a border official in Banteay Meanchey’s Poipet town, said ...
Critics question ministry’s claim of resolving most labour disputes
The Ministry of Labour on 17 February announced a nearly 40 per cent drop in the number of Cambodians who went on strike last year before then taking credit for successfully resolving the vast majority of those work stoppages, a claim met with widespread scepticism from ...
Longer stay for migrant workers proposed
Currently, migrant workers from other countries possessing “pink-card work permits” can work in Thailand for one year and are required to renew their permits if they want to continue working. Under a new proposal, migrant workers can work for two years before renewing theirpermits. The workers ...
Ho Chi Minh City businesses will need 19,000 new workers after Tet: report
Ho Chi Minh City will need 19,000 new employees for 1,371 businesses after the Tet Lunar New Year break, a labor center said. Keep reading ...
Malaysia visa fee increase waived for thousands of workers
More than 2400 Myanmar workers left in the lurch while Malaysia and Myanmar dispute a visa fee will have their applications processed under the previous – much cheaper – payment schedule, according to the Ministry of Labour. Myanmar recruitment agencies have been boycotting Malaysia – long ...
More talks between employers and employees needed
Thirty per cent of Vietnamese companies hold discussion sessions each month to air employees’ grievances, a survey by the Labour and Salary Department has found. The remainder of the 120 companies surveyed held discussions once a quarter or annually. Keep reading ...
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 ...
Bavet SEZ hashes out fears with deputy PM
A representative of a Svay Rieng province special economic zone that was rocked by violent strikes in December discussed security and law enforcement during a meeting on 2 February with Deputy Prime Minister Men Sam An, the province’s ruling party lawmaker. Keep reading ...