Being placed on consecutive short-term contracts in Cambodia’s predominantly female-staffed garment sector is forcing many women to choose between a family and a factory job. Solidarity Center country director Dave Welsh said factories frequently use fixed-duration contracts to cheat women out of maternity leave.
“Workers are protesting because they are being paid starvation wages,” says David Welsh, Solidarity Center country director. “There won’t be a solution to this problem until the brands are willing to increase the prices they pay their suppliers so that those suppliers can pay the workers decent wages.”
The pay boost is not only less than what the Solidarity Center has outlined, but also far less than the $11.11 protesting garment workers have asked for in recent months as they forced some factories in the capital to stop production.
According to research by the Solidarity Center, less than 1 percent of women in garment factories participate in worker associations in Bangladesh’s export zones.
The Cambodian government-established commission concluded that a garment sector living wage should range between 111 and 127 euros. But the minimum wage for workers at the beginning of this year was set at only 73 euros. “The government has ignored the findings of its own commission. Because of this, the unions called for protests,” said the Solidarity Center’s David Welsh.
Increasingly, opposition protesters have found common cause with striking workers in the nation’s booming apparel sector—a $5.5 billion industry, yet one in which average monthly wages stand at only $80. “Unless workers put in pretty outrageous levels of overtime,” they in no way make a living wage, says David Welsh, Cambodia program director for the Solidarity Center labor advocacy group.