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PHNOM PENH, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- At least 93 garment and shoe factories were closed in the first 11 months of 2009 at the cost of 38,190 jobs, local media reported on Tuesday, citing the figures released by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training.
A further 60 factories temporarily suspended operations, affecting 35,337 more jobs, but 55 new factories were also opened, creating 15,173 new positions, the Phnom Penh Post quoted the figures as saying, which were released at the fourth National Conference on Industrial Relations.
Labour Ministry Secretary of State Oum Mean was quoted as saying that the closures increased the rate of unemployment in Cambodia, but that around half of the laid-off workers found jobs again in the sector.
"So, the real number of jobless garment workers was less than 30,000," he said.
Ministry figures show that 516 garment and shoe factories are operating in Cambodia, employing 358,660 workers. Of these, 418 factories are in Phnom Penh, employing 262,320, while the 98 factories in other provinces employ about 96,340 workers.
Oum Mean acknowledged the challenges facing the domestic garment sector in the wake of the global economic crisis, which has seen the country lose market share to its competitors in the key U.S. market, according to the Asian Development Bank and International Monetary Fund.
The conference, which looked at the impact of the global economic crisis on industrial relations in Cambodia, was organized by the Arbitration Council Foundation, set up in 2004 to support the labour dispute resolution work of the Arbitration Council.
By Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer Original report from Phnom Penh 14 December 2009
Cambodia lost nearly 100 factories and 40,000 jobs last year in the wake of the global financial crisis, a government official said Monday, though some other factories have since opened and put more people to work.
“The ministry noticed that from January through November 2009, garment and shoe factories, in total 93, have been closed,” Om Mean, undersecretary of state for the Ministry of Employment, told an annual conference for garment workers on Monday. More than 38,000 were originally put out of work by the closures, he said.
However, he estimated that job losses were now around 30,000, thanks to newly opened smaller factories replacing the larger, shuttered operations.
World Bank officials warn that the garment sector job losses will contribute to an increase in poverty, from 1 percent to 3 percent.
‘This is a grave impact,” said Qi Mao Fan, World Bank’s Cambodia director. “So investors and workers must ensure the standard of work and competitiveness.”
Sok Lao, executive director of the Arbitration Council Foundation, said garment factories could be saved by increased commitment of government institutions, investors and workers to cooperate.
The garment sector is Cambodia ’s top export earner, reaching $2 billion in 2008. Om Mean said Monday the country now has 516 factories and nearly 360,000 workers.
To improve the sector, the government must settle questions faced by investors, said Ath Thun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democrat Union. Those include high prices for water and electricity, poor infrastructure, corruption and low worker capacity, he said.
By Ker Yann, VOA Khmer Video Editor: Manilene Ek 10 November 2009
Over the last decade economic growth has helped lift Cambodia out of its poverty. The signs were everywhere; bustling construction sites around Phnom Penh ; young workers filing into factories, filling orders for eager clients abroad.
More than 400,000 jobs in the textile industry fuelled the hopes of many young women whose earnings in the city helped support their extended families in the countryside.
Ny Sopheak: "I worked in the packing section of a textile factory. I earned sometimes $60 a month from the factory work and I sent $10 a month to my father."
But that factory, like dozens of others, has now closed. The global recession scared investors and shut down factories.
Twenty-three-year-old Ny Sopheak, like 50,000 other Cambodians, recently lost her job in the garment industry.
This in a country where not having a job can mean not eating, or perhaps just having one meal a day.
Ny Sopheak: "Since I don't have enough food I feel so weak and I often get sick."
Today Ny is sharing one egg and some rice with her roommate, Horn Devy who also lost her factory job. That's one egg between two people. Horn feels she can't go on much longer.
Horn Devy: "It's very difficult. It's a hard life, living in a small room like this."
Horn is only 15 years old. She was sent to work to help out her family, small time farmers and basket weavers who can't make ends meet.
Horn's mother says she worries about her, so young, and away from the family. Even so, she wanted Horn to earn money, so that her brothers can finish school.
But having lost her job, Horn has gone from providing for her family to becoming an extra burden. Asked how she feels about this, she says,
Horn Devy: "It's hard to say. I am starving. When you have no food it's very difficult to feel anything."
Her story is unusual because of her young age, but all over Cambodia's capital there are women who are falling into abject poverty as they lose their jobs in the textile factories.
Meanwhile, thousands of factory workers have turned to the streets to pressure the government to guarantee their jobs, their incomes, and their access to food.
And while Cambodia has been hard-hit, other countries are worried too. Guaranteeing the availability of food for everyone is now an urgent issue for governments across Asia-Pacific.
Many governments are now looking at how to invest in agriculture, to stem tide of migration towards the cities, and to help make food more affordable.
But textile factories too, are needed. If they keep closing, experts worry that much of the progress achieved in places like Cambodia, in education, in economic development, and in human rights, could be at risk; and with it the future of the entire generation.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The global recession forced the closure of 77 garment factories in Cambodia in the first nine months of 2009, throwing more than 30,000 people out of work, the government said.
Another 53 factories suspended operations in the January to September period but roughly half have since reopened, according to a report from the Ministry of Labor obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
Cambodia's garment industry is the main foreign exchange earner for the poor Southeast Asian country. Garment exports from Cambodia in 2008 were worth about $2.8 billion, with 70 percent of shipments going to retailers in the United States. The European Union is the second-biggest market.
"The closing of garment factories in Cambodia is mainly due to declining purchase orders from countries affected by the global financial crisis," said Oum Mean, deputy labor minister.
The Asian Development Bank said last month it expects Cambodia's economy to shrink 1.5 percent this year.
Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, said the association was trying to make Cambodian factories more competitive by reducing bureaucracy, the number of illegal strikes and the costs involved in exports.
There are about 520 garment factories operating in Cambodia, which employ some 360,000 workers, mostly women.
PHNOM PENH -- The Cambodian government said 130 garment factories have closed so far this year as the global economic crisis continues to depress demand for the kingdom's key export earner, local media reported Thursday. The LaborMinistry said the closure rate of one factory every second day has cost more than 60,000 jobs so far in an industry that is one of the country's economic mainstays.
Ministry figures showed that 30,000 workers have lost their jobs this year following the permanent shuttering of 77 factories.
“Just look at the factories ... They’re closing. The living standards get worse and worse” - Sary Muong, factory worker
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia’s garment exports are declining as a global recession crimps demand in the U.S. and Europe, cutting into an industry that supports a 10th of the Southeast Asian country’s population.
In January, garment exports plunged 25 percent from a year earlier to $185 million, said Mean Sophea, who heads the Commerce Ministry’s Trade Preferences System Department. Over the past decade, they grew at an average pace of 28 percent per year, according to the World Bank.
“I’ve never seen garment exports drop this much,” Mean Sophea said by phone from Phnom Penh, the capital. “The government is trying to reduce expenses for exporters, but we have seen a lack of demand from the U.S. and Europe.”
The U.S. and Europe take more than 90 percent of clothes made in Cambodia. Southeast Asia’s second-smallest economy may shrink 0.5 percent in 2009, the International Monetary Fund said March 6, revising down its 4.8 percent growth projection made a month earlier.
The proportion of garment shipments to total exports is higher in Cambodia than any country except Bangladesh and Haiti, according to World Trade Organization data. Some 70 percent of the country’s clothes were shipped to the U.S., where it was the eighth-largest supplier in 2007, the World Bank has said.
Lost Jobs
About 30,000 Cambodian garment workers, or a 10th of the total, lost their jobs in the past year as factories closed, the World Bank said in a March 8 report. The industry accounted for 17 percent of Cambodia’s gross domestic product in 2007.
The garment industry took off 10 years ago after Cambodia signed a trade deal with the U.S. that linked market access with improved labor standards in its factories. Exports went from almost nothing in 1994 to $2.7 billion two years ago.
The money earned every month by those who sew and stitch jeans and T-shirts for retailers such as Gap Inc. and Stockholm-based Hennes & Mauritz AB supports as many as 1.5 million Cambodians, said Douglas Broderick, resident representative of the United Nations Development Fund in Phnom Penh.
“There’s a whole community around the garment sector, little vendors, landlords, food stalls,” he said. “All those people will get hit.”
Sary Muong, a Cambodian garment worker earning less than $2 per day, has struggled to provide her family basic goods like food and clothing. The 34-year-old single mother makes a monthly salary of $55 that supports her parents and 8-year-old daughter.
“Just look at the factories,” Sary Muong said from a one-room shack with no running water or toilet in Phnom Penh where she lives with her sister. “They’re closing. The living standards get worse and worse.”
Labor Standards
Cambodia’s garment industry has built a reputation for good labor standards over the past decade that the Commerce Ministry says contributed to its growth. In 2001, the government, garment factories, labor unions and the International Labor Organization, a UN agency, agreed to set up a monitoring agency called Better Factories Cambodia.
It files semi-annual reports on working conditions in factories that go to buyers like Nike Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Adidas AG. Still, the higher labor standards haven’t stopped retailers from demanding ever lower prices, said Roger Tan, a factory manager and secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia.
“Every factory is cutting costs now whether they like it or not,” he said. “The whole world is in deep trouble. Nothing should surprise anyone now.”
The government, reliant on overseas aid to finance a quarter of the national budget, has said it will extend tax breaks for clothing manufacturers to help reduce costs. Even so, Cambodia remains “increasingly affected” by the global slowdown, the IMF said, adding that its 2009 growth forecast may be revised again.
The world economy will shrink this year in a slump that is the worst “in most of our lifetimes,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF’s managing director, said March 10. The World Bank, which also expects a contraction, said two days earlier that global trade would decline by the most in 80 years.
To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Ten Kate in Bangkok at dtenkate@bloomberg.net; Carole Zimmer in New York at czimmer2@bloomberg.net.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Everyday.com.kh Translated from Khmer by Socheata
Workers at two factories held simultaneous demonstrations on 16 March to demand suspension pay and to demand money collected from closed factories in which the owner fled. 400 workers were on strike at the Go International garment factory, located in Kbal Damrey village, Kakab commune, Dangkao district. May Vattana, a representative of the Khmer Youth union, indicated that this factory suspended work for the workers for the past two months, starting on 10 January until 04 March. On the day the workers were supposed to return back to work, the factory owner had decided to suspend their work for another two months, an act which is contrary to the law. At another factory located on Street No. 371, More village, Dangkao commune, Dangkao district (in the past, it used to be located in the Stung Meanchey commne), about 650 workers went on strike since 11 March after they learnt that the Korean factory owner fled Cambodia to return back to his country. Som Aun, president of the Federation of Unions of Cambodia, said in the afternoon of 16 March that, after receiving the news that the factory owner fled Cambodia to return to Korea, and that he could not be reached, Som Aun asked the landlord to put all the equipments on sale to collect salaries for the workers.
Female garment factory workers protest slashed wages at a factory in Takhmao in January. (Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON) Female workers protesting a wage cut at a Takhmao factory in January. (Photo by: TRACEY SHELTON)
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 Written by Khuon Leakhana The Phnom Penh Post
World economic crisis hurting gender equality at home, civil society groups say.
FOLLOWING the celebration of the 99th annual International Women's Day Sunday, civil society groups have lamented the lack of progress made by Cambodian women, saying their social and economic standing have been set back by the global economic downturn.
Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodia, said that whenever factories have closed, many young female workers have been forced to look for jobs in restaurants, karaoke parlours and nightclubs.
"We have no idea what other jobs [these women] can find and where," he said.
According to a report by the Free Trade Union, the Kingdom's garment sector employed around 350,000 mostly female workers across 450 garment factories in 2007.
But in 2008, 20,000 workers lost their jobs due to factory closures and in the first two months of 2009, the union estimates a further 10,000 people faced unemployment.
He went on to say that although Women's Day is internationally recognised, women in Cambodia - especially jobless women - still lack basic rights and access.
"Women's rights in Cambodia are still low. As a result, jobless women will not be happy to participate in the discussions about women's rights this year," he said.
Chea Mony added that jobless women, especially, lack the knowledge to contribute to the economy.
"We think that the celebration of March 8 is just a routine event, but that in practice respect for women's rights has never been fulfilled."
Cambodian women facing job losses are also looking abroad for work opportunities in countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Korea.
According to an annual report issued by the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training last week, approximately 74,400 labourers went abroad to work during 2004-08, most of whom went to Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan.
Ya Navuth, executive director for Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility, agreed that the loss of jobs would certainly impact women and that many would be exposed to exploitation working in the Kingdom's nightclubs or for employers abroad.
"Because they have no choice and no hope of finding new jobs, [some women] decide to work at nightclubs or karaoke parlours," he said.
He said also that women working overseas could be open to exploitation by their employers, and that the Cambodian government should take actions to ensure foreign investment and employment opportunities for women inside the country.
"The government should stop sending Cambodian labourers to other countries where their rights are not properly respected," he said.
Sy Define, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, told the Post that this year's International Women's Day was centred around "women's participation in economic and social development", a suitable focus given the current economic crisis.
"We selected the theme in order to show the ability and efforts of women both in and out of the labour system, and to encourage them," she said.
"Every job has value so long as it doesn't involve stealing and cheating."
"We also want to remind people of Cambodian women's rights and are working hard every day to extinguish violations of women's rights and freedoms."
She added that the ministry had promoted laws to protect victims, especially vulnerable women who face sexual harassment and rights violations in the informal sector.
"We want to tell jobless women, and those who have jobs in places like nightclubs and karaoke parlours, that every job has value so long as it does not involve stealing and cheating," she said.
Valuable contributions
But Oum Mean, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training, dismissed reports the factory layoffs had swollen the ranks of nightclub and karaoke workers.
"We are sure that some workers who have left garment factories returned home or tried to find a job in another factory, as they are already skilled, while others looked for work in the industrial sites that are Cambodia's main growth potential," he said.
He admitted that a number of workers did end up in informal service occupations, but said that whatever their occupation, women were contributing towards the development of the economy and were an important part of Cambodian society.
"It depends on the individuals themselves, and whether they value or devalue themselves," he said.
"Such work does not show whether a person is of value or not."
Oum Mean said that the government was promoting the involvement of women in government and making attempts to attract more foreign investment, and hence create more jobs.
"The Council for the Development of Cambodia is trying to contact foreign investors, including the European Union, which is looking for investment opportunities in Cambodia," he said, adding that Japan had also expressed interest in setting up a local car factory.
"So please don't get confused that only the garment sector can help develop Cambodia's economy."
Am Sam Ath, a technical supervisor for local rights group Licadho, said the government should find "better solutions" to the increasing factory closures, since women finding replacement jobs in bars and clubs were looked down upon by many Cambodians.
"Anybody who works in informal service positions is not considered in a good light by Cambodian society, which devalues the rights and morality of Cambodian women who take up these kind of jobs," he said, adding that the day's celebration should focus more on those women who are not participating rather than those who are.
"The topic for this year's event seems to be in contrast to the real situation in Cambodia. Instead, we should raise real problems women in Cambodia are facing rather than just talking about their participation in society."
Workers of garment factory L.A Garment block a road as they demand for their salaries, in Phnom Penh January 24, 2009. The company, which has stopped production, owes workers two months of salary, according to the protesters. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea Workers of garment factory L.A Garment block a road as they demand for their salaries, in Phnom Penh January 24, 2009. The company, which has stopped production, owes workers two months of salary, according to the protesters. Placard (C) reads " Government please help us, owner did not pay us, only Prime Minister Hun Sen can help us. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea Workers of garment factory L.A Garment block a road as they demand for their salaries, in Phnom Penh January 24, 2009. The company, which has stopped production, owes workers two months of salary, according to the protesters. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
Tuesday, 18 November 2008 Written by Sam Rith The Phnom Penh Post
With the global economic crisis taking its toll on Cambodian garment exports, the sector may face factory closures and mass layoffs
THOUSANDS of garment workers in Cambodia could be laid off in coming months if global markets, particularly the United States, continue to fall into deepening economic crisis, labour leaders and garment industry officials said Monday.
Chuon Momthol, president of the Cambodian Union Federation (CUF), a government-aligned union, said as many as 35 garment factories could be shuttered in November or December if dire international market conditions to not improve.
"So far, at least 20,000 workers have been laid off," he said, adding that the 35 factories facing closure employ between 1,000 and 5,000 workers each.
Van Sou Ieng, chairman of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia, said 30 factories have been closed this year.
"They closed because there were no purchase orders," he said.
"Our factories this year have only been operating at about 70 percent capacity."
He added that there was no indication that the situation for garment makers would improve in the near-term.
"Next year, the garment sector will face greater shortfalls in orders, particularly from buyers in the United States," he said.
Cambodia's nearly 500 garment factories employ about 350,000 workers nationwide, with most coming from the country's rural provinces, the CUF's Chuon Momthol said, adding that September saw the start of a critical downturn in the garment sector.
But Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Workers, said the garment sector would be unaffected by the economic slump.
"Factory closures were caused by the pullout of some investors who had been in Cambodia for 10 or 20 years but who have moved on to avoid legal conflicts over labour issues with the workers," he said.
