Phnom Penh: ហេង សួរ, minister of Labour and Vocational Training and chair of the National Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, presided over the second tripartite consultation on the draft Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Law on the morning of July 8, 2026, at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel.
The workshop sought additional views from representatives of relevant ministries and institutions, national and international partner organisations, employers and workers. It aimed to make the law more comprehensive and appropriate to Cambodia’s context and ILO standards, supporting occupational safety and health and sustainable labour market development.
The minister said the government’s emphasis on occupational safety and health had led the ministry to prepare the Strategic Plan for Development of the Labour, Social Security and Vocational Training Sectors 2024–2028 and implement the Third Occupational Safety and Health Master Plan 2023–2027. The aim was to build a workplace safety culture towards the vision that “every workplace has a proper occupational safety and health management system to eliminate occupational accidents and diseases”.
He said the draft consolidated more than 20 existing declarations and other legal instruments. Developing the law was a direct and timely response to the government’s commitment to higher productivity, international economic competitiveness and national growth. He said it would also bring Cambodia alongside ASEAN countries that had already adopted such laws. Cambodia’s future adoption would demonstrate its will to ensure OSH compliance in line with global trends and international labour standards, particularly in promoting human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD).
The minister stressed that the ministry consistently adhered to tripartite mechanisms and that good, comprehensive legislation came from tripartite dialogue with equal, open and candid participation.
He expressed strong confidence that the workshop’s cooperation and experience would produce historic results, and that the law would provide a firm basis for ensuring Cambodia’s economic development did not come at the expense of workers’ health.
By: ធី លីថូ
