"Unions appeal to Hun Sen’s cabinet to ensure seniority indemnity payments", 13 July 2020

More than 40 representatives from 21 unions and associations … submitted a petition to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s cabinet asking that it intervene to urge employers to provide annual seniority indemnity payments to workers for 2019 and 2020…

Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU), said that 21 unions and associations covering the garment, footwear, tourism, entertainment and construction sectors as well as informal economy, were seeking the prime minister’s cabinet’s help in urging the ministry to review its recent decision to allow companies to delay workers’ seniority indemnity payments.

“Now that the Labor Ministry has allowed employers to delay seniority indemnity payments to workers…it has made their economic situation even worse than before,” Sophorn said…

The Ministry of Labor established seniority indemnity payments … as a biannual pay for workers who are on an undetermined duration contract, according to a Labor Ministry prakas. The amount may account for 15 to 30 days wages annually depending on the worker’s industry…

…, Kong Chamroeun, a representative of Hun Sen’s cabinet, accepted the petition from the unions as more than 50 police officers, security guards, and Daun Penh district security officials stood watch near Wat Botum park…

Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, emphasized that the Labor Ministry had only delayed payments until next year, so workers would not be losing out on any benefits…