Global fashion industry prefers profit above garment workers right in Cambodia

A report by ActionAid and other human and labor rights groups regrets that the global fashion industry has put profit above the rights of garment workers in factories across Cambodia.

It states that sportswear giants like Adidas, New Balance, Nike, and Puma are leaving Cambodian garment workers to ‘languish’ below the poverty line.

The report is published by the international women’s rights group ActionAid in collaboration with the Centre for Alliance of Labour and Human Rights, the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, and the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union, ‘Stitched under Strain”.

It describes how long-term wage loss, made worse by the pandemic, has become the ‘daily reality’ for workers which is the largest employment sector of Cambodia.



The report points out that the Cambodian workers are underpaid and exploited. It said that the minimum wage was increased by $10 in the last three years but a study by report researchers found that 25 percent of workers complained of a drop in their monthly take-home income, excluding overtime. Most respondents to the poll reported having less money after accounting for overtime, with the payouts themselves falling by more than 60 percent between 2020 and 2023.



To make matters worse Cambodian suppliers are regularly losing orders because of the global recession. Cambodia’s garment exports in the first eight months of the year, decreased by about 19 percent to US $ 5.49 billion in the same period in 2017.



The garment and footwear sector employs 800000 workers, mostly women.