Asia > South-Eastern Asia > Cambodia > Cambodian trade unions demand monthly minimum wage of 168 USD for garment sector

Cambodia: Cambodian trade unions demand monthly minimum wage of 168 USD for garment sector

2015/09/29

Trade unions, which represent Cambodia's 700,000 garment and footwear workers, unanimously agreed on Tuesday to request the employers to increase the monthly minimum wage in the garment and footwear sector to 168 U.S. dollars for 2016, up from the current 128 U.S. dollars, according to a joint statement.

"Next an over-an-hour conference on Tuesday morning, the trade union representatives unanimously decided to set a figure of 168 U. S. dollars to negotiate in a tripartite conference (trade union, factory, and government representatives)," the statement said.

However, in the conference, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), which represents the factory employers, said they could afford to increase only 3.7 %, or 4.7 U.S. dollars, to the current wage of 128 U.S. dollars, according to Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour.

The new minimum wage for the sector for 2016 is expected to be announced early next month.

GMAC's president Van Sou Ieng warned last week that a steep increase in the minimum wage for the sector would affect the survival of a lot of factories.

Garment and footwear sector, the kingdom's major foreign currency earner, are comprised of nearly 1,100 factories with some 700,000 workers, according to the government figures.

The sector exported products worth 3.3 billion U.S. dollars in the initial half of 2015, accounted for about 80 % of the country's total exports.

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