“Phnom Penh City Hall sets sweeping new factory regulations to combat COVID-19 outbreaks among workers”, 17 June 2021

Phnom Penh City Hall on Tuesday released three plans aimed at combating the spread of COVID-19 among factory workers. The trio of ambitious, though non-binding, plans set new regulations and requirements for factories in the coming years, including providing accommodation and transportation for workers — two areas that have contributed to high rates of infections.

Unionists and rights advocates welcomed the regulations, but some said they were skeptical that factories would be willing to invest the necessary resources and urged oversight.

Crucially, the announcement also requires that factories “manage a joint transportation in which costs are shared by factories/enterprises and workers or employees or by any agreement to transport workers-employee to the work place safely.”

In spite of frequent, sometimes fatal, accidents, dangerously overcrowded trucks that cost just a few dollars a week to ride remain the primary form of factory worker transportation. Even as officials urged workers to avoid such transportation during the pandemic, many have said they cannot afford to travel to work in a safer manner…