ILO - Better Factories Cambodia to keep brands accountable for poverty wages

https://www.box.com/s/18ab385bdb7dd62de8d1


https://www.box.com/s/33f9b986e84f756dfa5c

Rong Chhun's interview on labor condition in Cambodia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEwSb87pweQ

Media Advisory

This is just to inform that on 27 June we are going to have press conference which talking about the current employment contract Practice and the need for it change. For more details please see in attach file!

Best,
Sarom


https://www.box.com/s/be4edb0f47d95d57b53e

CCU announcement: Rong Chhun to travel to Switzerland under ILO's invitation

Factories still skimping: ILO

Garment workers cram into the back of an open-air truck before being transported home at the end of a day’s work in Phnom Penh. Photograph: Will Baxter/Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 21 June 2012
Shane Worrell and Mom Kunthear
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia's garment exports exceeded US$1 billion during the first quarter of 2012, yet many factories are failing to pay workers proper maternity leave benefits or address issues of fainting, a labour report says.

The International Labour Or­ganization-Better Factories Cam­bodia’s Twenty Eighth Syn­­­thesis Report on Working Conditions in Cambodia’s Garment Sector, released yesterday, profiles 136 of the 320 factories registered with Better Factories in the six months to April 30.

It found only 54 per cent of garment factories were paying women some or all of their maternity benefits – an 11 per cent drop from the previous six-month period and a 20 per cent fall in just a year.

Nearly all of Cambodia’s garment workers are women with an average age of 24, ILO-Better Factories chief technical adviser Jill Tucker said.

“The deterioration of compliance in this area is worrisome and must be addressed.”

Statement of Rong Chhun to the ILO: Applicatio​n of Standards Committee Workers Caucus Country Priority Selections​

Invitation to Rong Chhun - Meeting on Measuring and Monitoring Decent Work - ILO, Geneva 27-29 June 2012

ITUC response to ILO

For an ethical iPhone, Apple should look to clothing and Cambodia [... well, it's not that ethical either in Cambodia!]

"The reality is that Apple has the influence to flex a little muscle." Photo: AP

April 2, 2012
Rachel Louise Snyder
The Sydney Morning Herald

Cambodia has proved it. In the late 1990s, the country negotiated a deal with the Clinton administration that linked good factory conditions to increased access to the US market. Cambodia brought in the International Labor Organisation to oversee factory monitoring and create unions, among other things, and in less than a decade garments became the country's primary export - more than 95 per cent of all goods exported, in fact. Eventually, the ILO turned over administration of the program to local authorities.

The tech titan must show some leadership in shutting the sweatshops.

In the world of global manufacturing, it seems that multinational corporations are destined to take their turn in the sweatshop spotlight. Apple's turn, merely the latest, has taken an unusual twist.

Chief executive Tim Cook, on a trip to China last week, visited a Foxconn factory and released photos of grinning workers on the iPhone production line. Cook's trip came after months of investigations, centred on Foxconn, of Apple's alleged sweatshop conditions. As the story gained momentum - in part because of a theatrical performance by a man named Mike Daisey, who has since apologised for fabricating much of his narrative - Apple hired the Fair Labor Association to audit conditions at its factories. It found widespread overtime abuse and subsistence pay at Foxconn, and the manufacturer and Apple pledged to do better.

ILO program pushes dialogue

Friday, 02 March 2012
Bridget Di Certo
The Phnom Penh Post

In the wake of several violent garment-factory protests last week, the International Labour Office yesterday launched a five-year, US$5 million Decent Work Country Program in Cambodia to focus on improving industrial relations.

“[This] marks the beginning of a new body of work for the ILO in Cambodia, one that we hope will be more targeted, more collaborative and producing more impact than before,” Jiyuan Wang, director of the ILO Country Office for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR is quoted as saying in an ILO press release.

Feature: Freeing Cambodia's children from work

By Karen Emmons in Siem Reap/The Island | ANN

Siem Reap (The Island/ANN) - Nit's family lives in a shaky thatch hut a short walk from the magnificent Ta Prohm ruins in the Angkor World Heritage Site. Her grandfather abandoned his family 15 years ago, and with no farm land, everyone has done their bit to stay together. Like her mother, aunt and grandmother, Nit now sells bracelets, postcards and magnets to tourists.

The streetwise education of an impoverished 10-year-old means Nit has quickly grasped the imperative of survival maths and emotional marketing. Though not "forced" to work, she knows whatever she earns helps her family buy food. She knows her small size gives her a better chance to earn than her older relations.

The Cambodian government has viable plans to keep children in the formal school system and help make Cambodia free of the worst forms of child labour by 2016. The government has singled out 16 types of work (including selling souvenirs) that it considers hazardous to children younger than 18 and it intends to remove the some 313,000 children estimated to be in those jobs. It's a goal that labour experts believe is possible, although there is less consensus about the tactics required.

Sometimes the police chase Nit and her young friends to frighten them away. When caught by police, who sometimes destroy their merchandise, Nit says it's scary and she cries. Others in a huddle of nearly 30 children holding cheap souvenirs express similar thoughts. However, quietly, Nit also mutters her relief - "I'm happy when the police force us away". Working, she believes, is for adults.

Union rips into ILO garment report

Garment workers take a break outside a factory on Sisowath Quay before returning to work for an overtime shift in Phnom Penh’s Russey Keo district last September. Photo by: Will Baxter

Thursday, 18 August 2011
Vincent MacIsaac
The Phnom Penh Post

Cambodia's garment factories remain, for the most part, in compliance with national laws and international labour standards, the latest monitoring report from the International Labour Organisation, which was released yesterday, concludes.

This finding was quickly dismissed as out of touch with reality by the president of one of the largest unions representing garment workers, a reaction that was in turn dismissed as predictable by the secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers’ Association in Cambodia.

“That’s what unions do, they complain,” GMAC’s Ken Loo said.

“Compliance levels generally remain high, although some areas of concern remain,” the ILO said in a statement accompanying its 26th report on working conditions in the Kingdom’s garment sector. It has been monitoring factories here as part of its Better Factories Cambodia programme since 2001.

Factories Plagued With Non-Compliance: Survey

The survey also found a rise in workplace discrimination and a 21 percent rise in labor strikes over the last six months.

Wednesday, 17 August 2011

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

“The report shows that compliance [to the law] is limited.”

Problems with worker health, work security and overtime continue to plague the garment sector, according to a new survey.

The International Labor Organization’s “Better Factories Cambodia” survey of 186 factories found that the challenges in the sector will be “difficult” to resolve.

Laborers in Cambodia’s main economic earner have long complained of poor conditions and long overtime, and in recent months, a spate of factory faintings have been reported.

The sector provides around 300,000 jobs and more than $2 billion a year in exports.

Twenty Sixth Synthesis Report on Working Conditions in Cambodia’s Garment Sector and Statement of the Project Advisory Committee

http://www.box.net/shared/9mt2vmokzajl93qkid09


http://www.box.net/shared/kzjprb1uh02f54ztazjz

Occupational safety a concern in Cambodia's garment factories – UN report

Source: UN News Centre

17 August 2011 – Although compliance by Cambodian exporting garment factories with national and international labour standards is generally good, areas such as discrimination and occupational safety and health remain a concern, according to a new United Nations report.

The report on working conditions in Cambodia’s Garment Sector was released today in the capital, Phnom Penh, by the UN International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia programme.

It reflects data compiled over a six-month period from November 2010 to April 2011 from 186 of the 276 factories registered with the programme, which was set up in 2001.

“Compliance levels generally remain high, although some areas of concern remain, particularly regarding discrimination, overtime, and occupational safety and health,” stated a news release issued by the programme.

CLC Invita​tion for Press Conference 21/06/11

Dear All:

As Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC) president, I would like to invite you for press conference on 21/Jun/2011 at the General Department of Labour of Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training from 3:30pm.

CLC have an official appointment with the representative of Ministry of Labour to discuss about the actions taken by government on labor rights and union register in Cambodia.

I would like to confirm you that in the International Conference of ILO (ILO, ILC), 2010, Labor Standard Committees raised many cases related to Cambodia. Those cases included killing, dismissal, suspension, and other union discriminations.

For those cases, Royal Government of Cambodia has not pushed companies to solve yet.

ILO Labor Conference’s report pushed government to guarantee the Freedom of Association, accept those workers to work include Naga World case, Absara Angkor Case, and other cases in textile and garment sectors.

Recently, Ministry of Labor has refused to register many independent local unions with unacceptable reasons which are the bad affect on Freedom of Association.

Royal Government of Cambodia has not taken actions yet, and then it leads to this discussion.

The discussion will be from 2:00pm to 3:30pm, and then there will be the press conference about the result of the discussion which will start from 3:30pm at the General Department of Labour (Ground Floor) of Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training.

Thus, I would like to invite you to participate and take detail information for this crucial event.

For more information please contact:

1. ATH THORN, CLC’s President 012 998 906
2. SIV SOTHEA, BWI’s Project Coordinator 012 664 004
3. SOK NARITH, CTSWF’s Vice-General Secretary 012 927 283

ATH THORN

CLC/C.CAWDU’s President

Cambodians rally against child labour

Sunday, June 12, 2011
AFP

PHNOM PENH — Hundreds of Cambodian school children marched through the country's capital on Sunday to mark the World Day Against Child Labour, waving banners calling for an end to the widespread practice.

The demonstration was organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Cambodian government, who have set a goal of ending the worst forms of child labour in the country by 2016.

They also announced the launch of an ambitious programme to rid Phnom Penh's popular riverside area of child workers by this time next year.

Menacherry Paul Joseph, head of the ILO's anti-child labour programme in Cambodia, said it was "a shame" that young children could be seen begging or selling books and souvenirs to tourists until late at night.

"Cambodia is truly a kingdom of wonder (sic!). Let us make it a kingdom without child labour ," he said at the rally, where demonstrators waved banners saying "Warning! Children in hazardous work - End child labour".

Cambodia: Garment workers facing ruthless victimisation

Hong Kong, Taiwan and Chinese companies try to smash unions after Cambodia’s largest ever strike – solidarity needed!

Thursday, 18 November 2010.

Dikang

Source: ChinaWorker.info

In Cambodia, 94 workplace union representatives remain suspended from their jobs with no income, following the magnificent four-day national strike in September. A further 685 workers who protested the suspensions of these worker representatives have been dismissed, according to the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers’ Democratic Union (CCAWDU). The companies, many Chinese, Taiwanese and Hong Kong owned have been using the law courts, spewing out injunctions, and hiding behind a battery of undemocratic anti-union legislation, in a blatant attempt to crush union organisation in the country’s main manufacturing sector.

The unions are now threatening new strikes: “We will do the strikes in front of stores and clothing shops, and we will announce to the world that garment factories in Cambodia abuse workers’ rights,” the secretary general of CCAWDU, Ek Sopheakdey, has warned.

In September, Cambodian garment workers staged the largest strike in the country’s history. This was against the government’s imposition of a $US61 per month minimum wage, a figure that falls far short of workers’ needs. The strike was almost a “general strike” encompassing more than half the total factory workforce – around 200,000 workers. The workers demanded the “wage floor” be lifted to US$93. The strike echoed similar big movements of the “sweatshop proletariat” in Bangladesh, China and other low-wage Asian economies in the past few months. In all these places GDP is surging forward but this brings almost no benefits to the poor majority. The increasing cost of food and fuel, as well as rampant speculation, have eaten into already low living standards.

ILO’s role disastrous

The union leadership, accepting the disastrous advice and offer of “mediation” from the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, called off the strike after four days in the elusive hope of “negotiations”. The ILO has played a scurrilous role that should brand it forever as an organisation of strike-breakers. Rather than negotiate, the foreign capitalists that dominate the industry have continued to conduct a naked policy of class war. A total of 779 workers’ representatives have been suspended, sacked or now face legal action by 20 companies hit by the strike.

The ILO’s treacherous role is again shown by its latest intervention, to propose the suspended workers sign a “letter of regret” – undertaking not to engage in new strike action and to abide by company regulations – as a condition for securing their jobs back. All the victimised workers have rightly refused to sign this document. Explaining the ILO position, Tuomo Poutiainen who is the chief technical adviser for the International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia programme said, “It’s necessary that both sides will take a bit of a step back and try to find those positive steps.” Yet there are few signs of any stepping back by the bosses! Further strikes, “wouldn’t be very helpful,” said Poutiainen (The Phnom Penh Post, 27 October 2010).

Chinese capital

Capitalists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China are the top three investors in Cambodia, with a combined production base of 230 factories employing 276,000 workers (source: Garment Manufacturers’ Association of Cambodia). These companies are at the forefront of attempts to punish the strikers and crush trade unionism. One typical representative of this group is the Hong Kong company Addchance, which supplies big global brands like H&M, Zara and Marks & Spencer. Its chairman, Sung Chung-kwun, defended his decision to suspend and attempt to be rid of 24 union representatives at the company: “They have been trouble-makers for a long time. They went on strike without obtaining government approval in advance, and it disrupted production and cost us money,” he told the South China Morning Post (15 November).

For capitalists such as Sung, fundamental democratic rights such as the right to strike and to organise a trade union, one that defends workers’ interests, is ‘trouble-making’ and should be banned. The attitude of these companies towards workers’ rights shows there is no difference between the capitalists from authoritarian China, semi-authoritarian Hong Kong or “democratic” Taiwan: forced to choose between profits and democratic rights they will always choose the former! The same is true of the big multinationals based in “democratic” capitalist Europe and the United States – they are fully aware of the union-busting slave labour practises of their suppliers in low-wage Asian countries. Yet they hide behind hypocritical codes of “ethical conduct” that were designed to throw dust in the eyes of public opinion while they are routinely violated in practise.

Beware the “rule of law”

In Cambodia the main tactic of the bosses is to use the legal system and the labour law, crafted with the help of the United Nations which effectively ran the country in the past, to shackle workers’ organisations. The companies argue the unions acted “illegally” by failing to observe government rules for strikes. In reality, the legal system as in every class society is weighted in favour of the big owners of property. Assisted by an army of expensive lawyers, the capitalists want to weave a legal web around the unions to deprive them of any possibility to fight.

The bosses’ central argument is that the four main unions involved in the 13-17 September strike failed to give the legally required seven days notice for the stoppage. This claim rests on a technical detail. The first letter from the unions, dated August 19, threatened strikes if the companies refused negotiations on the minimum wage. A subsequent letter, dated September 10, used a different term – calling for talks on a “living wage”. The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) claims this difference in wording represents an entirely new set of demands and, as it came just three days in advance of the strike, breaches the Labour Law. This despite the fact that the unions’ central demand – for US$93 a month – is clearly stated in both letters.

Based on this cheap semantic trick, dozens of individual lawsuits have been filed against workers’ representatives. In addition, at least ten companies have filed for damages against the leaders of the Cambodian Labour Confederation (CLC). This replicates the pattern of union-busting antics deployed by bosses in the advanced capitalist countries. There is a clear warning here as to what the capitalist politicians and think tanks mean when they talk about the need for “rule of law” as a priority for democratic reform in China and other authoritarian states. By this they want stronger legal powers for companies and employers, which in no way translates into greater legal protection or freedoms – of assembly, organisation and political association – for the working class and poor majority.

This struggle has shown the government to be relatively powerless in dealing with the companies. Prime Minister Hun Sen called for the companies to allow workers to return to their jobs. “The government has tried to negotiate to help the workers return to work, but GMAC and the factories will not listen to them,” said one union leader.

Workers cannot put any confidence in this government. It is necessary to turn instead to the wider working class and other oppressed layers with a campaign linking the reinstatement of victimised workers with determination to pursue the US$93 a month wage demand without compromise. Unfortunately, in a misplaced gesture of moderation, union leaders have dropped this demand. It is also crucial that workers’ organisations internationally rally to the cause of Cambodian workers by protesting to the government authorities and singling out the companies and global brands involved for maximum pressure: “An injury to one is an injury to all!”

Send protest letters to:

H.E. Mr Hun Sen,

Prime Minister,

Phnom Penh

Kingdom of Cambodia

Fax: +855 23 88 06 24

ILO weighs freedom of association

23/06/2010
CSR Asia

The International Labour Organisation is reviewing Cambodia’s compliance with a convention ensuring workers’ right to form unions without interference from employers and officials, looking in particular at steps taken to investigate past killings of prominent union leaders. However, the committee tasked with conducting the review said last week that the government had failed to submit a report outlining steps taken to meet the convention’s requirements. Convention 87, to which Cambodia became a party in 1999, addresses workers’ free association and collective bargaining rights. The comments also addressed a handful of particular cases, including the killings of Chea Vichea, former head of the Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia; Hy Vuthy, the FTU president at the Suntex Garment Factory; and Ros Sovannareth, a union leader at the Trinunggal Komara garment factory. Chea Mony, the brother of Chea Vichea and current head of the FTU, criticised both the government and the ILO for weak implementation of Convention 87. (The Phnom Penh Post, June 16)

Unions Want Longer Contracts for Workers

Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Kandal, Cambodia Wednesday, 26 May 2010

“The workers can’t support these contracts, and the government must settle this problem.”

Labor activists met with international union reps in Kandal province on Sunday as part of a wider effort to improve contracts workers have with their employers.

The educational meeting was an effort to convince workers to refuse short-term labor contracts in favor of longer guarantees.

More than 100 garment factory workers met with union representatives from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal and Belgium.

Of Cambodia’s 400 legal and illegal factories, about 60 percent of them apply short-term contracts for workers, said Ath Thum, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, during the campaign.

Short-term contracts put pressure on employees, who can easily lose their jobs, he said. They push employees to work longer hours and dissuades them from joining the trade unions that can protect them, he said.

“We explained to them the inconvenience of the short-term contract,” he said, adding that they were encouraging workers to “gather in one voice to claim the elimination” of such contracts. “If employers continue to use these contracts, it means they abuse the law.”

Cambodia’s $2.4-billion garment sector employs more than 300,000 workers, with wages ranging between $30 to $100 per month. The industry has struggled to compete with other nearby countries, where labor can be cheaper or more skilled or both.

Ath Thum said the reliance on short-term contracts meant limited experience for workers, adding to the the lack of competitiveness. Ath Thum said he plans to lead a campaign against the contracts in garment industrial zones in Phnom Penh and the provinces of Kampong Speu and Preah Sihanouk.

“I wish for employers to stop from now on the short-term contract,” said On Phally, a garment factory worker from Takeo province who attended Sunday’s meeting.

Yin Serey Vathanak, national project coordinator for the International Labor Organization, said Sunday’s meeting was also to help the government “understand what workers are facing.”

“The workers can’t support these contracts, and the government must settle this problem,” he said.

Koy Tep Daravuth, director of the conflict resolution department of the Ministry of Labor, said short-term contracts were legal and were “no violation” of worker rights.

Still, labor leaders from other countries said Sunday Cambodian unions need to push for the elimination of short-term employment.

“There is a lot of violence, a lot of problems, with short-term contracting,” said Ferdra Vanhuyse, Asia coordinator for the Belgium-based World Solidarity Movement.

She said her organization hopes to bring short-term contracts onto the political agenda at an annual ILO meeting in Geneva that begins in June.