Rethink night worker bonus cancellation, urge groups

PHNOM Penh’s move to scrap some employee bonus and holiday entitlements is likely to hurt the poorest workers already reeling from the Covid-19 pandemic, labour rights groups and unions warned.

Higher rates of pay for night shift workers and the moving of public holidays that fall on weekends to weekdays – which is currently mandatory – will be abolished by changes to the labour law drafted by the government last month.

“The working class rely on these benefits to survive,” said Ou Tepphallin, head of trade union the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation, yesterday.

“They are in a state of crisis already and now we have another move to support employers while workers get nothing,” she said.

Cambodia has recorded no deaths and less than 300 Covid-19 cases, according to health officials, but the pandemic has hurt its vital garment industry – which employs about one in 20 Cambodians – and the tourism and construction sectors, cutting thousands of jobs.

The proposed changes to the country’s labour law will attract new investors to Cambodia and encourage existing ones to consider ramping up production, potentially creating thousands of jobs, said Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia.

“This is the fastest way to increase employment without a significant increase to capital investment,” said Loo, who is also a labour ministry adviser.