News
Palm Oil Labor Abuses Linked to World’s Top Brands, Banks
Jum’s words tumble out over the phone, his voice growing ever more frantic. Between sobs, he says he’s trapped on a Malaysian plantation run by government owned Felda, one of the world’s largest palm oil companies. His boss confiscated and then lost his Indonesian passport, he ...
Associated Press
Minebea opens third plant
Minebea, the largest Japanese company in Cambodia, officially opened a third manufacturing plant in the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone on December 8 to coincide with the fifth anniversary of its presence in the country. Yoshihisa Kainuma, president and CEO of Mineba (Cambodia), told reporters at ...
As labourers leave Myanmar delta, farmers struggle to mechanise
On a recent November morning, farmer U Soe Myint Aung was busy collecting rice from his harvester and loading it into bags. It is heavy work but still he knows he is lucky; with 17 acres of paddy field situated along a road in Kwinyar village, ...
Ministry checking brick factories
The Ministry of Labor has established a working group to investigate the use of child labor at some brick-making factories to the north of the capital, but has yet to find a case about debt bondage and child labor as mentioned in a recent report ...
Boom built on ‘slavery’
The use of debt bondage to trap workers in “modern day slavery” is widespread in many of Cambodia’s brick-making factories, indicates research by rights group Licadho, whose findings suggest the Kingdom’s recent building boom is built on the illegal practice. In a report released on ...
Prospect for a budding industry
With Cambodia’s traditional cash crops struggling to compete in global supply chains, the Kingdom could carve out a lucrative niche in commercial cannabis harvesting and exports – provided it acts fast to take advantage of the falling legal barriers, a Cambodia-based American innovator has argued. ...
Mobility of skilled labor needed for successful AEC
ASEAN Dialogue partners are urging Southeast Asian countries to pick up the slack in providing better access to employment for its skilled workers in an effort to achieve the target of free flowing labor in the region. Efforts to enhance skilled labor mobility in ASEAN ...
ASEAN officials discuss cooperation on labour practices
ASEAN labour officials are meeting over two days in Vientiane to update progress, share experiences and seek ways for future cooperation on labour practices. The ninth meeting of Senior Labour Officials Meeting’s Working Group, on progressive labour practices to enhance the competitiveness of ASEAN, will conclude ...
Geneva meet waiting on labour union input
An International Labour Organization official on Sunday urged local unions to present their views on the contentious Trade Union Law to the body’s Committee of Experts, a request that has so far found little traction. The ILO’s Committee of Experts will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, ...
Tata Tea project fails to protect Indian workers
A World Bank investigation into a tea plantation project in India that it jointly finances with tea giant Tata Global Beverages has found that it has failed to tackle alleged abuses of impoverished workers, the group said on November 9. The International Finance Corporation—a member ...
