"Garment worker housing survey disputed", 03 August 2017

Unions have disputed the findings of a survey claiming more than half of garment and footwear industry workers live in good housing conditions.

The research...by the Worker Health Project, said only two percent of workers in the industry were housed in very poor conditions.

The survey found that six percent of workers lived in very good housing conditions, 55 percent in good conditions, 28 percent in average, ten percent in poor and only two percent in very poor conditions.

Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions...claimed the scope of the study was not wide enough to draw conclusions about the whole industry.

...Sophorn added that she still saw many garment workers with very bad living and housing conditions.

Rooms were often severely overcrowded, while people had no access to healthy food and faced treacherous journeys to and from work.

There are 700,000 workers and approximately 85 percent are women....

The garment and footwear industry workers' minimum wage is $153 per month.