Push to Protect Domestic Workers

A labor union yesterday called on the government to ratify the International Convention on Domestic Workers and to amend the country’s Labor Law to improve the rights and working conditions of all workers in Cambodia. Vorn Pao, president of the Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association (IDEA), told Khmer Times that the government needed to take such steps to better protect domestic workers.
 

“If the government ratifies the 189th ILO convention, the government must also amend the Labor Law to adjust it with the convention that requires member countries to include inputs from the convention, such as minimum wages, maximum working hours, holidays, working conditions. In short, the government should give the same rights to domestic workers as to garment workers,” said Mr. Pao. Citing data from 2013, he said that almost 80 percent of the more than 240,000 domestic workers in the Kingdom were women, with only 14 percent earning more than $70 a month, in addition to long working days and little time off.
 

Mr. Pao said he has long called on the government to make such changes, but until recently has been ignored. However, recently, officials at the Ministry of Labor told him they were considering the issue. Khmer Times was unable to reach the ministry spokesperson to confirm Mr. Pao’s claim.

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