“Cambodia’s wage protests: Fashion brands support garment workers”, 8 October 2014

…Cambodian textile workers have persuaded major international fashion brands to agree to a minimum wage of nearly double the current rate to $177 a month…Thousands of textile workers, mainly women, have taken to the streets of Phnom Penh over the past year or so calling for higher wages as increasing numbers of western fashion brands move production to the country, looking to partially escape fast rising wages and costs in China…[N]ow the brands themselves have reached a settlement with the workers – Next, New Look, C&A, H&M, Inditex (owner of Zara, Massimo Dutti and other brands) and Primark have all joined the settlement and informed the Cambodian government and the local Garment Manufacturers Association. The Cambodian “solution” is interesting in that, unlike the government-mandated minimum wage hikes in other Asian countries, in Phnom Penh the agreement is between workers’ organisations and the brands themselves, effectively circumventing the government and, hopefully, forcing the government to raise the minimum wage overall at some point…