The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (“MLVT”) on 14 August 2020 has issued Prakas 277/20 on Employing Foreign Nationals in Special Circumstances (“Prakas 277/20”). Prakas 277/20 allows owners and directors of enterprises or establishments which face difficulty recruiting or have insufficient number of Cambodian employees for the relevant positions in the enterprise to employ foreign nationals exceeding the legal limit on the foreign workforce quota. This quota is determined by Prakas 196/14 on the Employment of Foreign Labour dated 20 August 2014 as 10 percent of the total number of Cambodian national employees at the enterprise.

Enterprises that need to employ foreign nationals under special circumstances as above will need to undertake the following steps:

• submit a letter of request to the MLVT attaching the employment contracts of each foreign national employee;
• complete the work permit application for the foreign worker on Foreign Workforce Centralised Management System (“FWCMS”) website (fwcms.mlvt.gov.kh);
• pay the work permit fee as stated in the Joint Prakas between the MLVT and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (currently determined under Joint Prakas No.335/20 dated 27 March 2020); and
• that the foreign national employee possesses a valid visa/residence permit.

In addition, the MLVT has also issued Notification No. 028 MLVT/K.B/S.Ch.N.M.H dated 7 August 2020 (“Notification No. 028”), reminding owners and directors of enterprises or establishments to fulfil their obligations under the Labour Law to ensure that they have applied for the necessary work permits for the year 2020 for all foreign national employees employed by them through the FWCMS website.

If you have any questions or require any additional information, please contact Matthew Rendall, OI Phirum, or Liew Shan Berg of SokSiphana&associates (a member of ZICO Law).

This alert is for general information only and is not a substitute for legal advice.