"Employers under disabled job scrutiny", 27 October 2017

Employers – public and private – which do not meet their obligations to take on disabled people are to face cash penalties, the Social Affairs Ministry says.

Ministry secretary of state Sem Sokha said...that for the first time the government had prepared guidance on employing disabled people.

Disabled people must make up two percent of workers in state institutions. The figure for private businesses is one percent...

He said fines were already stipulated in law and were based on a wage of $170.

State institutions would be fined 50 per cent of this figure for every job that should be filled by a disabled person but which was not. The fine for the private sector was 40 percent...

Mr Sokha said his ministry’s inspection team would work with ministries, state institutions and the private sector to verify job information requirements and solve problems such as a lack of disabled applicants.

Yin Soth, 19, who is disabled, lauded the ministry’s action. She said it paid attention to people with disabilities. It encouraged them to find work and facilitated the work for people with disabilities.

“This is a great thing for disabled people in Cambodia,” she said. “However, some organisations have accepted disabled people at work, but support in their organisations is limited.”

The ministry said that early last year 2,576 people with disabilities worked in ministries and state institutions, representing 1.72 percent of the workforce. A further 2,124 disabled people worked in 19 private institutions.