Walmart and H&M Suppliers Pay Workers at Closed Cambodia Plant
Suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Hennes & Mauritz AB (HMB) agreed yesterday to pay about $145,000 in back wages and severance to about 160 workers at a Cambodian factory that closed in November, a labor activist involved in the deal said. The agreement, which followed a two-day hunger strike, was reached at a meeting yesterday in Phnom Penh that included representatives from Wal-Mart, H&M and their suppliers, Saramax Apparel Group Inc. and New Archid Garment Factory Ltd., said David Welsh, country director in Cambodia of Solidarity Center, a Washington-based international worker rights group. … Cambodia is the eighth-largest apparel producer for the U.S. market, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Saramax will pay about $100,000 to the workers and New Archid will pay about $45,000, Welsh said. Workers will begin receiving the payments in the coming weeks, [David Welsh] said. …
