While the decision for next year’s floor salary lies with the Ministry of Labor’s Labor Advisory Committee (LAC), not the National Assembly, a larger support base for raised wages could help sway members of the committee to agree upon a number that unions find suitable, said Dave Welsh, country director for labor rights group Solidarity Center.
Workers in Asia’s cheapest garment-production hubs are increasingly agitating for better pay, and some big foreign clothing brands say they are willing to help finance wage increases. “It’s unprecedented. It’s a recognition of the role they play,” said David Welsh, Cambodia program director for the Solidarity Center.
Local labor law does not regulate the company-provided trucks and vans used to transport garment workers, but the vehicles are not a safe option to get to work, said Dave Welsh, Solidarity Center Cambodia country director. However, “if they don’t get into the trucks, they don’t get to work and they don’t get paid.”
According to the Solidarity Center, “The majority of (Honduran) clothing and textile workers are women who face particular challenges in the workplace, including sexual harassment, denial of maternity leave and forced pregnancy tests during the job application process.”
The Solidarity Center reported in May that more than a dozen garment factory union leaders in Gazipur were physically attacked or threatened with violence.
According to David Welsh, program director for Cambodia at the Solidarity Center, “In Cambodia there’s a complete absence of living wage… This is a race to the bottom.”