Garments and textiles

Three more unionists have been suspended as a result of the violent strikes at a Kampong Speu garment factory in May and June, a Free Trade Union official said yesterday. Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing factory’s FTU president Sun Vanny, vice-president Sem Sopheak and general secretary Chi ...

A labour union representing a minority of workers who have been striking at SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd for nearly three months released a statement yesterday, calling the strike bad for the industry’s reputation. Without specifically mentioning the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (C.CAWDU) ...

With union and company officials at one of Asia’s largest garment factories making no progress in resolving a strike that has lasted nearly three months, a pair of labour relation groups are working on an agreement that all sides hope will end the deadlock. officials from ...

Union officials fear violence that occurred at two separate rallies in front of the SL Garment Processing (Cambodia) Ltd factory last week will continue at one scheduled this morning. About 10 SL strikers were injured during demonstrations on Thursday and Friday, when uniformed and plain-clothes SL ...

The Cambodian government should construct an effective annual review system for the minimum wage to ease worker unrest, according to clothing retail giant H&M. The Swedish company’s comments came after CEO Karl-Johan Persson visited the country in mid-October, meeting Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Sen and other ...

Yet another ruling in the tumultuous trial of former Bavet town governor Chhouk Bandith has been set, with the Appeal Court yesterday announcing a verdict date for next week. After Bandith was convicted in absentia on the charge of unintentionally causing injury in June for non-fatally ...

A garment factory’s alleged efforts to wipe workers’ contract histories clean could be a “test case” for how much international buyers tolerate factories negotiating outside of legal requirements, a labour-rights advocate has said. After effectively being bought out of their contracts, about 300 employees of USA ...

The International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia program (BFC) releases the first report from its mobile phone call-in project aimed at educating garment and footwear workers. The mobile phone project entitled Kamako Chhnoeum (‘Outstanding Worker’ in Khmer) received 3,245 valid phone calls in its first two ...

Amid concerns of legal violations on the part of their employer, about 400 workers at the USA Fully Field garment factory in the capital’s Meanchey district accepted payouts for their factory closing – even though it hasn’t. Workers protested last week in fear that the factory ...

Broken bottles and stones flung by security guards at striking garment workers who blocked the road in front of the factory yesterday morning injured about 10 people, worker representatives said. The attack allegedly occurred at around 7:30 am, after about 500 employees at SL Garment Processing ...

Despite concerns that political uncertainty would be a drag on the economy, Cambodia’s garment exports continued on an upward trend in the first nine months of the year, the latest data show. Though volume increased, factory profit margins were squeezed due to labour disputes and demands ...

Nearly 400 workers at the USA Fully Field (Cambodia) Garment factory blocked National Road 2 in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district yesterday after fears spread that the factory was winding down operations and that management wouldn’t pay necessary wages once it closed. Soy Nakri, a worker representative ...

A two-day meeting between union leaders, senior government officials and representatives of the SL Gar­ment Factory failed Tuesday to reach a solution for factory workers, who have been on strike since early August and on Monday demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Phnom ...

Garment industry, Cambodia’s largest income earner, reported a 22-percent increase in exports in the first nine months of 2013, showed the data of the Ministry of Commerce released on Tuesday. During the January-September period this year, the country had exported garment products in equivalent to $4.2 ...

Eight unionists locked in prison in Kampong Speu province since violent clashes at the Sabrina Garment factory in May and June were released on bail yesterday, court and union officials said. Cheum Rithy, a provincial judge, said he had decided to release the eight Free Trade ...

A Cambodian trade unions leader on Saturday called on garment workers not to participate in the opposition party-planned mass demonstration next week against the results of July’s election that handed victory to Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling party. “I would like to appeal to all workers ...

Some of the world’s largest clothing brands have warned the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia of possible business ramifications should the factory representative continue with plans to impede labour monitoring. Thirteen major buyers, including Gap, H&M, Levi’s, Nike and Puma, have signed a letter to GMAC ...

In a letter sent to the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training last week, the Council of Ministers encourages the ministry to facilitate talks between garment factory management and the union representing thousands of workers on strike for nearly two months. The letter, written by Council ...

Cambodia’s factories are moving away from producing the most basic clothing items and diversifying to manufacture more intricate products for international buyers. As the garment sector has grown over the past decade, most garment factories have stuck to producing items such as T-shirts and jeans due ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday heard the case of two port workers and a military police officer charged with stealing more than 8,000 articles of clothing from a shipping container while it was being driven to the Phnom Penh Autonomous Port. The three suspects—Sorn ...

The two-way trade between Cambodia and Japan has hit $503 million in the first eight months this year, up 24 percent over the same period last year, the figures from the Japan External Trade Organization said Tuesday. Cambodian exports to Japan rose 39 percent to $358 ...

The World Bank said Monday that the impact of Cambodia’s political uncertainty was “unclear” but left its growth forecasts unchanged for this year and next year.  “The Cambodian economy remains robust amidst a challenging global economic environment,” the bank said in its East Asia and Pacific ...

A move by the International Labour Organization to name and shame garment producers in Cambodia that flout workers’ rights and safety standards could damage the industry’s reputation and result in a drastic reduction in orders from buyers abroad, according to a senior manufacturing official. Last week, ...

The head of the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program said yesterday that consultations on its new public-disclosure initiative have been going on for more than a year, contrary to claims by a garment factory representative who characterised the process as hasty. Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser ...