"Minimum wage to be moved to vote after third meeting fails to find joint resolution", 21 September 2021

Employers, government and union representatives will vote to set the 2022 minimum wage for garment workers …, after failing to reach an agreement in three negotiation meetings.

The third and last of the tripartite talks was held …, with no resolution said Mann Seng Hak, vice president of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC).

“…, they will take all figures of every party for voting to choose any figure to set the minimum wages for the garment workers for 2022,” Seng Hak said. “The participants to vote will be 17 people from the employers side, 17 people from the government, and 17 people from unions.”

At the final meeting …, he said employers representatives proposed $188, a rise from a proposal of 183.40 made ... The government proposed $192, updated from 191.90.

And the unions proposed $204, decreasing from 206.60. The minimum wage is currently $192, but employers and, initially, the government had called for a wage decrease amid the pandemic. Unions initially called for a wage increase to $214.20.

… Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia, said … that employers had calculated wages based on seven criteria…

Loo said employers are also spending more in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in factories, a requirement that includes expenses for masks, sanitizers and rapid tests for workers.

Ath Thorn, president of the Cambodian Labor Confederation — one of the country’s biggest unions attending the tripartite negotiations hosted by the Ministry of Labor — said workers are suffering the impacts of the pandemic far more than employers…