Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday highlighted the joint accomplishments of the Cambodian government and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in helping to bring 1.5 million of the Kingdom’s workers into the formal labour market.
The ILO was established in Paris on October 29, 1919, while Cambodia joined the organisation in 1969.
In a letter published on Monday, the prime minister also announced the government would stage a celebration to mark the 133rd International Workers’ Day, held globally on May 1, under the theme Social Protection for Production.
The prime minister used the letter to highlight the successes that have emerged from cooperation between the Cambodian government and ILO over the years.
He said one such accomplishment was the creation of a tri-party mechanism for social dialogue discussions regarding issues such as human rights, employee and employer benefits and the establishment of an arbitration council for social security funds.
“The government has and continues to cooperate with ILO and other development partners to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Cambodia’s ambitious goal of becoming an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2050,” Hun Sen wrote.
ILO National Coordinator Tun Sophorn said the government has contributed to the growth of the Kingdom’s employment sector.
He said he hopes the government will continue to enforce laws to promote Cambodia’s employment sector, with a particular focus on the informal economy so that such workers can receive security and benefits enjoyed by those in the formal sector.
“The government must strengthen social protection, social security funds and benefits for workers in the informal economy as they do not receive these benefits."
“In addition, the government must continue to pay attention to minimum wage in the garment sector,” Sophorn said.
In a separate prime ministerial directive signed on Monday, Hun Sen also instructed the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training to stage an event on Thursday celebrating ILO’s centenary and the 50th anniversary of Cambodia becoming an ILO member.
The event will be held under the theme “Creating Social Justice and Improving Jobs”.
The directive stated that Cambodia’s employment rate currently sits at 99.3 per cent, with a total of 10 million people participating in the labour force.
It said that enterprises operating in the formal economy numbered approximately 13,000, employing some 1.5 million workers. There are some 600,000 businesses in the informal economy employing close to 2.4 million workers.
The agriculture sector, the directive said, employed more than four million workers, while there were some 1.2 million Cambodian migrant workers living abroad and 500,000 civil servants employed by the government.
