Building on the success of a similar training course delivered by the project in Cambodia in May 2018, the training course was designed and delivered by the ILO in response to the request and assessed needs of trade unions in Cambodia to further strengthen knowledge on the essentials of data management and statistical analysis and basic economic theories relevant to effective, evidence-based, participation in minimum wage and collective bargaining negotiations. The December 2018 training course also reinforced prior learning outcomes regarding data sources for up-to-date information on key indicators of economic and social criteria relevant to such negotiations. A total of 32 participants, including 10 female participants took part in the four-day training course, representing trade union members of Cambodia’s Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) and Tripartite Working Group (TWG).

Training programme

The curriculum for the training course encompassed: Fundamental descriptive statistical tools designed to increase the capacity of trade unions to conceptualize central tendencies for economic and social indicators and criteria relevant to minimum wage and collective bargaining negotiations; Utilization of graphics for data visualization; Correlation; Confidence; and assessing statistical strength. Participants were engaged in hands-on practical exercises including real-world comparative statistical analysis of current macro-economic indicators for Cambodia, and comparative data for other major garment exporting countries.

The training course delivered guidance on accessing and working with Cambodia’s national official administrative data issued by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MoEF), the National Bank of Cambodia, National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia, as well as international data sources including Eurostat, World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), US-Trade and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Participants were engaged in practical, hands-on data extraction, compilation, calculation, and interpretation assignments, through various groupwork exercises.

Learning outcomes

The results of the various groupwork exercises and whole-class plenary interaction throughout the four-day training course indicated a marked improvement in the demonstrated capability of the participants in the use of statistical tools, as well as in the extraction and analysis of data from relevant sources, that could be applied in the context of ensuring that participation in minimum wage negotiations and collective bargaining is undertaken in a way that is better informed and more evidence-based.

Participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the training course, remarking that it fulfilled a prior capacity gap amongst workers organizations in Cambodia, and that the learning outcomes of the course would their respective workers organizations in their professional capacities during forthcoming annual minimum wage negotiations, as well as in the context of collective bargaining.

Participants requested the ILO to deliver follow-up ‘refresher’ trainings.