The Labour Ministry and relevant parties have started talks on the minimum wage for workers in the textile, garment and footwear industries for next year.
A ministry announcement yesterday said initial talks to set the parameters for the mew minimum wage were scheduled for this month and discussions between it, employers and unions will take place next month.
“All parties have to use social criteria such as family status, inflation rates, living expenses and economic criteria,” a ministry statement said. “The economic criteria includes productivity, the country’s competitiveness, labour market conditions, profit margins and the poverty level.”
The ministry requested all parties to focus on providing data based on research into the criteria as set out in Article 5 of the Minimum Wage Law to use as the basis for negotiations.
Ath Thun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, said yesterday that the respective unions have already conducted informal discussions on the issue.
He said the coalition is also conducting a survey on the cost of living and plans to hold discussions with international unions later this month.
“So far we have just talked to other unions about a suitable wage, but we still have nothing specific to put forward,” he said. “We have yet to obtain feedback from our survey.”
“After getting the feedback we will meet to propose a figure that has been jointly agreed upon as we do not want to have any disagreement among the unions,” he added.
According to the ministry, the minimum wage for garment, textile and footwear workers was officially set at $170 per month this year.

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