"A Wake up Call for the Cambodian Textile Industry", 29 January 2019

... Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) indicates improving conditions in the country’s garment factories, human rights violations demand new mechanisms for accountability and transparency in these companies.

… It’s crucial that the government, garment industry corporations and international allies support the Cambodian people in pushing for transparency, accountability and better conditions…

The BFC report found improved compliance for international laws around overtime wages, discriminations against employees, child labor, routine evacuation drills, and reprisals for union membership.

However, across the nearly 500 factories surveyed, still 234 violations were registered between November 2017 and May 2018… The survey also found only 11 violations of international child labor laws among 600,000 workers, far fewer than the 74 violations found in 2014.

... the World Bank suggests that demand for Cambodia’s exported textiles is increasing at a rate of 16.1 per cent per year,… Growth is partly due to the European Union’s decision to give Cambodia tariff-free access to their markets under the “Everything but Arms” (EBA) program…

Despite rights violations in the garment industry and the country as a whole, Nike, Adidas, H&M, Gap Inc, and other international brands continue to rely on Cambodia for the manufacture of a significant portion of their products.

H&M recently hosted a summit on fair wages in Phnom Penh and stated that wages for factory workers producing their clothing were 24 per cent higher than the minimum wage, for a total of $210.80 per month. However, Clean Clothes Campaign, …, highlighted H&M’s failure to follow through on its promise to provide minimum wages to its 850,000 garment workers…