By: Teung Seila
currently, discussions about the rights and well-being of the working class in Cambodia are centered on the minimum wage. In his speech on December 10, International Human Rights Day, Prime Minister Hun Sen emphasized that the government had “received multiple requests from unions to set a minimum wage for workers in the construction sector,” a reference to the fact that Cambodia only has a minimum wage in its garment sector.
He also stressed that he was “seeking a minimum wage for the other sectors so that we know what workers in the kingdom are earning as well as to stop any exploitation of workers.”
Sok Kin, president of the Building and Woodworkers Trade Union of Cambodia (BWTUC), welcomed the idea of setting a minimum wage for the construction sector. “Construction workers as well as individuals [currently need to] negotiate wages with [their] employers just like domestic workers,” he said, the Khmer Times reported at the same time as Hun Sen’s speech.
However, because the construction sector is mainly informal, regulating the minimum wage to improve the economic well-being of those workers is simply not enough. Instead, sophisticated policies are needed. Of similar importance are improvements in technical training and safety measures.
Read more >> https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/05/opinion/minimum-wage-wont-fix-cambodias-construction-sector/
No comments:
Post a Comment