Boost for Cambodian workers

PHNOM PENH: Levi’s, H&M and Gap Inc have backed a ruling that restricts the use of short-term contracts for garment workers in Cambodia, where critics say they are widely used to control staff and silence dissent.

The companies behind the three global fashion brands said they stood by an arbitration council’s ruling that a factory supplying them must give permanent contracts to 408 workers it employed on a short-term basis.

The ruling is significant because it could force hundreds of others to follow suit, ending what labour rights campaigners have condemned as the historic abuse of short-term contracts in the country’s US$7bil (RM29bil) garment industry.

“We have made it clear that the factory must comply with the Arbitration Council ruling,” H&M spokesperson Ulrika Isaksson said.

The factory’s owner, Taiwan-based Roo Hsing Garment Co Ltd, did not respond to a request for comment.

The company had indicated it would challenge the ruling, but the government has since made clear it backs the arbitration court’s interpretation of the law, meaning an appeal would have little chance of success.

That is good news for Soeun Sophos, one of the 408 claimants in the case, who is pregnant with her first child.

The 28-year-old has been making H&M pants for six years but always on short-term contracts and said she had never felt secure in the job.

“With short-term contracts, we are totally vulnerable,” she said at a roadside barbecue joint after work.

“They can dismiss us at any time. Everything is in their hands.”

The garment industry is a pillar of Cambodia’s economy, accounting for 40% of gross domestic product and employing more than 700,000 people, mostly women.

But it is rife with labour and human rights violations, according to labour rights groups.

In a survey of 464 factories, more than two-thirds of workers said bosses were illegally using short-term contracts, according to Better Factories Cambodia, a monitoring group overseen by the International Labour Organization.

Workers on short-term contracts are seen as less likely to be involved in unions, to report abuses or to push back against employers racing to meet rising production targets, for fear of losing their job.

Gap did not directly address the Roo Hsing dispute but said it stood by the arbitrators’ decisions.

“We have communicated to all our suppliers in Cambodia our expectations that vendors adhere to rulings made by the Labour Arbitration Council,” spokesperson Debbie Felix said.

Levi’s would take punitive action should the factory backtrack on a commitment to accept the ruling, spokesperson Phil Zabriskie said.

“Roo Hsing has agreed to implement the ruling, pending additional clarification which is expected soon,” he said. — Reuters