News & Events Details

On January 16, 2023; MLVT, Trade Unions, and employer representatives joined the National Tripartite Validation Workshop “Cambodia Decent Work Country Programme 2024-2028”, organized by the MLVT with the support of ILO at Himawari Hotel.

The main objective of the validation workshop is for the ILO constituents and partners to validate and endorse the priorities, outcomes, and outputs as well as the theory of change of the DWCP 2024-2028.

Mr. Ath Thorn, CLC president, opened the remarks as the employee representative and he said that employee representatives play an important role in the implementation of the ILO’s DWCP and MLVT.

He said; “We [the employee representative] are glad to participate in [this workshop] and talk about the Trade Union stance in DWCP the next 5 years.”

Today is the last gathering for reviewing and advisory to include the input or prepare the DWCP for employees, employers, and government for 5 years, Thorn continued.

He added that if we go through the DWCP 2024-2028, it is aligned with the previous DCWP even though this new DWCP was in slight corrections.

He emphasized that; ” This DCWP will be implemented in 5 years. Compared to the 5th DWCP, it is only 3 years due to the Gov’t set following the Election mandate.”

However, following the implementation experiences of DWCP, he said that the Trade Unions have observed the pros and cons at the same time.

“We [Trade Unions] get more pressure on the lawsuit and work termination. There is some [accusation] and there is no solution,” he said.

Besides this, there is some improvement in law and regulations but those are also challenges for trade unions in labour sector such as the law on Trade Union, Thorn added.

He said; “Up to now, the Trade Union has been challenged in forming and joining Trade Union, being the TU representative, and potesting. Especially, the confederation of trade unions and trade unions still cannot be a direct representative to address the problem for the workers.”

On behalf of the workers, he also listed six ideas that the trade unions had debated multiple times in response to the five-year DWCP. These proposals included:

1. Expand the scope of the social security system and the quality of health services
2. Promote trade union and labor rights for vulnerable workers better than today by eliminating trade union discrimination by employers
3. Promote the resolution of labor disputes (individual and collective disputes)
4. Improve Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) for workers and the workplace in all fields.
5. Promote gender equality and eliminate violence and harassment in the workplace.
6. Expand the minimum wage in tourism, services, and construction.