The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training continues to work with relevant institutions and partners to address safety issues related to transportation for factory workers.

The ministry said transportation of workers, mostly by cargo trucks, will have to change and road traffic law enforcement will be strengthened.

The ministry said that as of January 2021, it had raised awareness about safe transportation for workers to 3,181 factories, with 383,804 participants including 266,316 workers and 117,488 drivers.

The figures were revealed during an annual meeting of the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) on February 11 in the presence of labour minister Ith Samheng.

“As a result, accidents involving workers’ commutes in 2021 dropped 22 per cent when compared to the previous year, from 4,184 to 3,268 cases,” Samheng said in a Facebook post.

He said the ministry had pushed for a change in worker transportation mode from cargo trucks to safer vehicles by organising 13 meetings with stakeholders in 2021.

The National Road Safety Committee said that last year saw a total of 2,670 traffic accidents, resulting in 1,497 deaths and 3,615 injuries, 2,246 of which were severe.

National Trade Unions Coalition (NTUC) director Fa Saly said that transportation means for workers have not improved and workers still face dangers while commuting to work.

“If we compare the current situation to the past, I can say that it has improved by about 5 per cent and challenges still persist. This is because workers do not have the option to travel by their own means and opt for crowded shared vehicles,” he said.

Asia Injury Prevention Foundation director Kim Pagna said that the number of service vehicles transporting workers with cargo trucks had decreased significantly, but the number was still high.

Citing an NSSF report, he said that among the vehicles that provided transportation services to workers in 2020, there were nearly 4,000 trucks – and about 60 per cent of them were cargo trucks.