Cambodia government officials call for paid leave days for vaccination

In making the order, Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Sam Heng added that obstructing someone from getting vaccinated was a crime as stated in the COVID-19 and labour laws, and employees can seek redress from the ministry if their employers do not grant them paid time off to get inoculated. 

“The owners and directors of factories and enterprises have to encourage their workers to get vaccinated, or they will be fined and face possible legal action as stated in the relevant laws,” he said. 

In the same vein, Phnom Penh municipal governor Khuong Sreng has appealed to all private sector employers to allow their staff to get vaccinated when invited to by their local authorities to do so. 

“To accelerate the vaccination of all people aged 18 and over in Phnom Penh and finish by the end of June 2021, as recommended by the government, the municipal administration appeals to the management of factories, enterprises and companies in the private sector in the capital to permit their workers to miss work twice, if necessary, in order to get [both doses of] COVID-19 vaccine,” Sreng said. 

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It is estimated that as of late May, 22.7% of the population has now been vaccinated out of the projected 10-13 million people that Cambodia’s government says will need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, according to The Phnom Penh Post.