"Absent workers during KNY must go on 14 days unpaid leave and mandatory self-quarantine", 9 April 2020

A senior official at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MoLVT) said that the workers who go on unpaid leave during the cancelled Khmer New Year will have to undergo mandatory 14 days self-quarantine if they breach the government’s sub-decree.

In addition to the quarantine, their absence will be treated as unpaid leave.

MoLVT’s spokesman Heng Sour said that to prevent the infection of the novel coronavirus after Khmer New Year, and based on the quarantine orders, these measures were necessary to prevent a sudden surge in the pandemic...

“I don’t think 60 percent of workers would apply for leave. There may be about 30 percent who may be applying but factory and unions are explaining to the workers what awaits them when they try to return to work and the specter of 14 days unpaid leave...

Kaing Monika, deputy secretary general for the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), told ... that workers and employees can apply for leave, but it’s also the management’s prerogative to grant leave or not in accordance with the law and company’s internal rule.

“To protect the spread of the virus from one another, it is the correct measure to implement the 14 days quarantine. I think the factories can submit the names to the authorities to help monitor the quarantine on those not following the government’s protective measures,” Mr Monika said...