Mr. Sok Kin from BWTUC explained his organization’s data about the general situation of construction workers in Cambodia. He said of about 20,000 construction workers currently working in Cambodia, 70% of them are based in Phnom Penh. Unskilled construction workers earn US$120-200 a month while skilled labourers earn around US$300-450 on average, based on BWTUC data. There are almost 2000 construction companies currently operating in Cambodia, around 60% of which are still valid in the ministry registration system. However, there are tens of thousands of sub-contractors operating without this formal registration, which therefore do not follow standard labour law and give workers very low salary and little protection. Based on the union’s survey in July of around 1000 construction workers, about 20% had encountered accidents but only 9% received medical treatment from their employers. “This means 90% of all construction workers we surveyed do not have insurance to ensure their safety protection at the worksite,” he said. Foreign construction companies tend to provide a complete safety equipment compare to Cambodian firms, he said, which account …

Kry Phanith is considered the youngest site manager at his workplace. At the age of 22, he has gotten this job after graduating from North University, majoring in engineering. As his company has many projects he needs to rotate around different sites on a regular basis. At most of the construction sites, there are only two categories of workers, unskilled construction workers and skilled labourers. As unskilled construction workers, the females get paid less than males, as they cannot ask them to do heavy labour like men. They usually just mix limestone and clean the sites. “I think if we pay female construction workers the same as males we might lose profit. Male workers can work twice as much as women since we can ask them to carry heavy cement but we cannot assign women to do those tasks,” he said, adding that his company gives workers salary based on productivity and capacity to handle tasks at hand. Workers can stay in the temporary houses the firm built for them and have free use of …

As a researcher for The Green Net project in 2016, Chea Kesorphearom has been inspired greatly by the dedication of women who work on construction sites. Given her background from a middle-class family in Cambodia, it is hard for her to imagine herself being able to do the work these women do in such an environment. “I think they have the mindset to accept whatever work conditions and pay they are offered. They don’t understand that when they do the same amount of labour as men they should get paid the same,” she said, adding that these women should be empowered to stand up and demand basic equal rights. Based on her experience doing field work for both The Green Net project and previously at CARE, she felt uneasy. These women can only earn a daily wage for the number of days they work. She reflected back on her own life, where many people around her have so many more opportunities but do not value them. For the older women, their dreams still persist but …

Dy Sophon works as a real estate sales consultant for a real estate development company. When the problem of unequal pay between female and male construction workers was raised, he knew right away where to take his stand. Seeing the positive growth of construction projects in Cambodia, Sophon can feel the difficulty of having women involved in the big game. “We can see the involvement of women is still limited, especially for construction where male workers are mainly needed. We only need females for cleaning and other basic light labour,” he said. Some foreign projects even bring their own workers to do the building, he added, which also in a way affects the situation of the female construction workers. “Women are our second steps, the first step is to have male workers to work. And the pay, therefore, cannot possibly get higher unless they do other jobs besides labour work,” he said. In his company estate project, Sophon added, women workers are usually assigned to do different tasks from male workers. Otherwise, they can work …