Just-Style

Cambodia’s government is moving forward in adopting a controversial law on trade unions, despite opposition from labour rights groups and garment manufacturers. Latest figures show Cambodia’s garment and footwear exports in the first six months of 2015 reached US$3 bn, a rise of 12.7% on ...

Hong Kong based garment manufacturing giant Crystal Group is hoping to replicate the success of its “Chinese role model sustainable denim jeans factory” with its new facility in Cambodia. ...

Two weeks of strikes by Cambodian garment workers of a Phnom Penh factory could have “negatively impacted” the country’s industry, The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has said.  Figures published last week by GMAC showed the number of strikes at Cambodia’s garment factories during ...

UK retailer Marks & Spencer and the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC) have disputed the details of a report alleging labour rights abuses are still rife in the country’s garment factories, with both claiming they are committed to providing and supporting safe working conditions. ...

Safety in Cambodian garment factories needs to be improved through a complete overhaul of building regulations and the inspection regime, says a new report. The Cambodia Garment and Footwear Industry Fire and Life Safety Risk report, funded by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the International ...

A Cambodia government-appointed Labour Advisory Committee (LAC) may decide on a new minimum monthly wage for garment sector workers when it meets next week, just-style has been told. The committee is due to meet on Wednesday (12 November), when it will discuss whether to increase the ...

Transparent reporting of garment factory compliance in Cambodia is continuing to help to improve conditions for workers, according to a new report. In its third online transparency report, the International Labor Organization (ILO’s) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) programme said two of the 13 factories in the Low Compliance group had ...

Despite lapses in factory safety and ongoing labour unrest, Cambodian exports of garments and textiles grew 9% in the first three months of the year. According to data from the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), Cambodia exported US$1.17bn worth of garments and textiles between January ...

International labour organisations Industrial Global Union, UNI Global Union and ITUC are seeking international support for a day of action in support of garment workers arrested during recent strikes in Cambodia. The groups are calling on people to demonstrate outside Cambodian embassies and deliver protest letters ...

The Better Factories Cambodia programme has been renewed after a new, three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was agreed. The new agreement, aimed at furthering the initiative’s mission to improve working conditions in Cambodian garment factories, was signed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Cambodian Ministry ...

UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S) is trialling a new campaign aimed at helping 14,000 garment workers in Cambodia deal with common health issues, as part of its Plan A ethical programme. The company, which aims to become the world’s most sustainable major retailer by 2015, ...

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 ...

The Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring and reporting scheme is launching a mobile app next month to help improve knowledge of the country’s labour law for those working in the industry. Partially funded by Adidas, the ‘Cambodian Labour Law Guide’ app will be available to download ...

Cambodia’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is wearing thin – and yet the country is a rising star when it comes to attracting foreign investment and increasing exports. There are many reasons to deter brands and retailers from sourcing clothing in Cambodia. The Kingdom ...

The long-running Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) monitoring programme is in urgent need of reform, according to a new report, which suggests the country’s reputation as a standard-bearer for apparel workers’ rights is “wearing thin”. The report, “Monitoring in the Dark – an evaluation of the International Labour ...

Cambodia’s garment exports rose 9.9% to $3.44bn in the first nine months of this year, up from $ 3.13bn a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Cambodian Ministry of Commerce. ...

Swedish fashion retailer H&M has hit back at accusations that it fails to pay adequate wages to workers in Cambodian factories making its clothes – and says instead that the situation would be a lot worse if it didn’t source from the country ...

H&M Hennes & Mauritz’s head of sustainability Helena Helmersson was in Cambodia last week to meet with ILO/Better Works Cambodia on how to improve working conditions in export garment factories. Helmersson said in a blog post that the lack of dialogue between workers and factory management ...

Of course the BRIC countries are far from being the only emerging market suppliers for the global apparel sector – and a knot of competitors such as Bangladesh and Vietnam have long been vying for business. But there are smaller players (in terms of the ...

US retailer Gap Inc says it has “demanded an immediate investigation” in response to allegations of harassment at one of its suppliers in Cambodia. A strike at the Ocean Garment Factory in Phnom Penh has now entered its third week, despite a court ordering the 2,500 ...

A strike at the Ocean Garment factory in Phnom Penh, which supplies US retailer Gap, has entered its third week, despite a court ordering the 2,500 protestors to return to work. The unrest began on 11 August after six female employees accused their Bangladeshi manager of ...