Cambodia Garment Wages Set to Rise as H&M Pushes New Approach
Swedish clothing giant H&M recently announced a program to boost wages for garment workers in its sub-contractor factories around the world, including in Cambodia, where the company is a leading buyer. H&M’s announcement comes at the end of a turbulent year in the garment sector in Cambodia and elsewhere. In the coming weeks, the Cambodian government will announce a rise in the current $75 monthly minimum wage for garment workers. The size of the increase is not yet known, but authorities are under pressure to improve wages and working conditions in the country’s most important industry. … In part, that pressure is political. The opposition made astonishing gains in July’s election, partly by promising to double the monthly minimum wage. That pledge won over many of the country’s 400,000 garment workers, most of whom are young women who support their impoverished rural families. … In October, H&M’s CEO, Karl-Johan Persson, discussed wages with Prime Minister Hun Sen in Cambodia and met with local labor unions. Shortly after the visit, H&M unveiled a five-year roadmap intended, in part, to guarantee a fair living wage for workers and an annual review of workers’ wages. … Industrial disputes are nothing new to Cambodia’s garment industry, which over the last two decades has grown from nothing to become a $4 billion a year export business. It is a pillar of the economy and the key foreign exchange earner. Most of its products go to the United States and the European Union. … Dave Welsh, the country representative of the Solidarity Center, a non-profit affiliated with the U.S. labor movement, welcomes H&M’s decision. Welsh said it is no secret that the Cambodian government fears that buyers in the cutthroat garment trade might abandon the country should wages rise too fast. However, the roadmap laid out by H&M, a key player in the garment sector here, should help to alleviate those fears. … Meanwhile, Cambodia’s garment workers are waiting to hear how much they will earn next year. Already some independent unions are threatening further action unless the minimum wage doubles to $150. …
Robert Carmichael
http://www.voanews.com/content/cambodian-garment-wages-set-rise-hm-pushes-new-approach/1803179.html
