Migrant labour law finalised

Photo by: Sovan Philong
Heng Bunnarin, 27, describes conditions of her employment in Malaysia during a press conference on issues confronting migrant workers on Tuesday.

via CAAI

Wednesday, 15 September 2010 21:24 Chhay Channyda and Brooke Lewis

A DRAFT sub-decree designed to protect migrant workers and better regulate the labour-recruitment industry has been finalised.

Speaking at a workshop in Phnom Penh that focused on strengthening migrant workers’ rights in the ASEAN region, Ministry of Labour official Nhem Kimhuoy said Labour Minister Vong Soth had recently signed the sub-decree.

Nhem Kimhuoy said the initiative improved and expanded on regulations first introduced in 1995.

“We have to protect migrant workers like other workers,” he said. “This afternoon, I will send a sub-decree that helps to promote workers’ rights to the Council of Ministers.”

Though he did not spell out all of the sub-decree’s stipulations, he said it would require recruitment companies to deposit $100,000 with the ministry that could be used to assist workers sent abroad “when problems occurred”.

The workshop, which was attended by government officials and representatives of about 20 NGOs, came a day after rights group Adhoc said it received 28 complaints from women who claimed to have been abused while working as domestic servants in Malaysia.

The workers said they had experienced violence, poor working and living conditions, and illegal detention.

Raja Saifful Ridzuwan, minister counsellor at the Malaysian embassy in Phnom Penh, said yesterday that he had been “very surprised” to hear of the complaints.

“Reports of abuse of Cambodian workers in Malaysia are quite new to us,” and Malaysian officials would investigate the issue, he said. “We are not taking this matter lightly.”... read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours (New York 4AM, Los Angeles 1AM, Chicago 3AM, Paris 10AM, Vancouver 1AM, Sydney 6PM, Bejing 4PM, Tokyo 5PM, London 9AM, Johannesburg 10AM, Riyadh 11AM, Mumbai 1:30 PM)