Profile

Mission & Values
Embracing good governance principles enables the Arbitration Council to differentiate its operations from other Cambodian legal institutions for quality dispute resolution. As the case load has grown, adherence to these principles – integrity, independence and neutrality, equity, participation, transparency, predictability and responsiveness – has resulted in continually increasing standards of service of labour dispute resolution and long-term sustainability of the service.

Welcome to The Arbitration Council

The Arbitration Council is an independent, national institution with quasi-judicial authority derived from the Labour Law of Cambodia. Established in 2003 with the support of the Ministry of Labour, employers and unions, the Arbitration Council is empowered to assist parties in resolving collective labour disputes in Cambodia.

History & Role
The Arbitration Council is a national institution whose role is to resolve labour disputes through conciliation and arbitration. The Council was established by Prakas (Ministerial decree) in May 2003, and is provided for under Cambodia’s Labour Law.

The Arbitration Council promotes effective industrial relations by providing a forum for Cambodian workers and employers to seek fair and equitable resolution to labour disputes. These disputes are directly addressed in a timely and transparent manner, by hearing disputes and issuing balanced, reasoned and just arbitral decisions based on law.

The Arbitration Council is not a court but, pursuant to Cambodian statutes, is endowed with legal and equitable decision-making authority with regard to collective labour dispute cases.

Role & Function
The Secretariat of the Arbitration Council is established by law to administrate the labour dispute resolution service of the Arbitration Council. The Secretariat is an out-posting of the Ministry of Labour and a neutral office. The Secretariat can give assistance regarding procedure but they cannot give legal advice. They act without bias towards either party.

As parties to a dispute must have no direct contact with the Arbitration Panel except on the day of the hearing, all communications and enquiries regarding a labour dispute case should be directed to the Secretariat.

The key functions of the Secretariat are to receive and process labour dispute cases forwarded from the Ministry of Labour, facilitate arbitrator selection by the parties, act as administrative intermediary for all communications between the arbitration panel and the parties, collect and distribute documents and other communications relating to arbitration proceedings and issue the arbitral awards.