GMAC Urges Factories to Resist New Monitoring
Following the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) announcement that its Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program will from January name and shame firms that contravene Cambodian labor laws, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has urged factory operators to refuse entry to ILO monitors, unless they have government officials in tow. Ken Loo, secretary-general at GMAC, said that BFC’s reluctance to involve his organization in discussions, and its haste to implement the new monitoring standards, had led him to tell factories that any factory inspections must include government officials, a directive that he claims is part of the original agreement between stakeholders. “BFC has gone beyond its mandate,” Mr. Loo said. “Their job is to monitor and report, not to enforce; that is the government’s job. … Mr. Loo claims that the initial memorandum of understanding (MoU) on factory monitoring completed and signed by the government, GMAC and ILO specifies that all parties be involved at all stages of discussion and implementation, but Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser at BFC, claims the opposite. … The move followed after Stanford Law School researchers in February released a report that concluded that BFC had failed to improve wages and standards for workers in the Cambodian garment sector. The scathing Stanford report said the BFC’s lack of transparency had actually set back industry standards for Cambodian workers compared to those in China, Indonesia and Vietnam—none of which had an ILO-backed factory-monitoring program at the time. …
Matt Blomberg
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/gmac-urges-factories-to-resist-new-monitoring-44006/
