"Unemployed to get $40 per month", 19 April 2020

The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has instructed enterprises, business owners and travel agencies in five provinces to prepare the proper forms for the suspension of employment contracts.

This, it said, will make it easier for the ministry to transfer $40 a month to workers and employees via Wing (Cambodia) Limited Specialised Bank.

…, Prime Minister Hun Sen announced changes in the allowances for temporarily laid-off garment workers from receiving 60 per cent of the minimum wage to a flat $70. Of the figure, $40 will come from the government and $30 from factory employers.

Along with the change, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) requested the ministry to issue concrete instructions around the procedure to give out the allowance. Some workers had claimed they had yet to receive the $40 from the government.

An instruction letter issued by the ministry … said for the government to provide the $40, employers or owners of factories, enterprises and establishments in the textile, garment and footwear sectors have to follow the procedure mandated by it.

The letter confirmed that employees in the tourism sector who are in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Preah Sihanouk, Kep and Kampot provinces and out of work because hotels, guesthouses, restaurants and travel agencies were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic were subject to the same conditions.

… Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions president Yang Sophorn said employers had previously failed to fill in documentation properly as per the procedure of the work suspension. “That’s why it made the government’s performance slow or non-existent,” she said…