Leading clothing retailers such as Gap and H&M need to help alleviate labor abuses at factories in Cambodia that manufacture their products, a human rights organization said.
New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released yesterday that a special program to safeguard workers’ interests instituted by the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) is subject to evasion that leaves factory employees vulnerable to unhealthy working conditions and unfair pay and benefits.
The 140-page report, Work Faster or Get Out: Labor Rights Abuses in Cambodia’s Garment Industry, said factors behind the problem include flaws in the ILO’s oversight program and a failure by Cambodian officials to enforce existing labor laws and standards, partly due to corruption.
It said its report was based on interviews with more than 340 people, including 270 workers from 73 factories in Phnom Penh and nearby provinces.
“The Cambodian government should take swift measures to reverse its terrible record of enforcing its labor laws and protect workers from abuse,” Human Rights Watch researcher Aruna Kashyap said in a statement. “These global apparel brands are household names. They have a lot of leverage, and can and should do more to ensure their contracts with garment factories are not contributing to labor rights abuses.”
Cambodia’s garment and textile exports for 2013 totaled US$4.96 billion, roughly three-quarters of the country’s overall exports, with the figure increasing to an estimated US$5.7 billion last year, the report said. The industry employs an estimated 700,000 workers, about 90 percent of them women.
Production for major global brands is carried out by contractors whose export licenses are contingent on allowing inspections and reporting under a 14-year-old scheme worked out with the ILO called Better Factories Cambodia. The program has since been used in other developing nations to encourage good labor practices while promoting economic growth.
However, the report echoes previous criticisms that the Cambodian program fails to curb significant labor rights abuses, including “forced overtime and retaliation against those who sought exemption from overtime, lack of rest breaks, denial of sick leave, use of underage child labor, and the use of union-busting strategies to thwart independent unions.”
It said the use of short-term contracts made it easier to fire and control workers, while poor government inspections and enforcement, and aggressive tactics against independent unions, made it difficult for workers to assert their rights.
The report said a major source of the problems was the generally unmonitored use of subcontractors — without the knowledge or agreement of the big brand firms — particularly because such establishments are not covered by the Better Factories Cambodia inspections.
Human Rights Watch says about 200 apparel brands source from Cambodia, adding it was in contact with six brands, of which Adidas, Gap, and H&M “seriously discussed their efforts to address the problems found.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in