Factory shutters in shame

11 April 2014
The Phnom Penh Post
Child labor / Economy and commerce / Foreign investors / Garments and textiles / Government / Human rights / Industries / Investment / Labor / Labor arbitration / Labor policy and administration / Manufacturing policy and regulation / Ministries and other national bodies / Social development / Unions
Arbitration Council / Army & Air Force Exchange Service / Better Factories Cambodia / BFC / CLEC / Community Legal Education Center / Costco / Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia / GMAC / ILO / International Labour Organisation / Ken Loo / Komar Brands / Macy’s / Ministry of Labour / Moret Group / Sears / Taiwan / Worker Rights Consortium / WRC / Zongtex Garment Factory

The Zongtex Garment factory off Phnom Penh’s Russian Boulevard looks like a nondescript residential compound, hidden down a dead-end road. There are no signs suggesting that it supplied to some of the world’s leading high street names – and the US military. Taiwanese-owned Zongtex Garment Manufacturing made clothes for Sears, Macy’s, the Moret Group, Komar Brands and Costco, according to a Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) audit released last month. It also supplied to the US military’s Army & Air Force Exchange Service. Allegations in the WRC audit – the result of a years-long investigation – range from union busting to child labour and poor occupational safety, with one worker reporting that she soiled herself at her sewing machine because she was not permitted to use the bathroom. According to the WRC report, while its main facility near Veng Sreng Boulevard was registered with the Ministry of Labour, the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia and the International Labour Organisation program Better Factories Cambodia (BFC), its second factory operated under the radar. …

 Daniel Pye, Alice Cuddy and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-shutters-shame