The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) announced yesterday the launch of a new health insurance pilot program for factory workers suffering from work-related illnesses.

NSSF director Ouk Sam Vichea said yesterday that under the program, employers are to shoulder 60 per cent of costs, and workers 40 per cent. The pilot includes 11 volunteer factories and more than 8,100 workers and is to be rolled out nationwide at the end of the year.

Inclusion in the program, he added, would be voluntary for factories, unlike the Kingdom’s mandatory workplace-injury insurance, which covers more than 936,000 workers.

“We do not have the right to force factories to be on the list for our new insurance, but they have an obligation to do this for the benefit of their employees’ health,” he said.

However, Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance Trade Union, said that employers should be bearing the full cost of the program, and that workers live with “a risk of health problems in factories, so it is important for them to insure their health”.