May 2, 2020
Hanging on by a thread
In roughly one out of every six garment and footwear factories that line National Highway 2 on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, once-busy production lines now stand still. Not one skirt, dress or pair of slippers are being stitched together to meet the ever-hungry demand of international fashion brands, a business that is estimated to have generated $7 billion for one of Cambodia’s four main economic pillars in 2019.

At the beginning of the year, the truth dawned about the grave implications of Novel Coronavirus as the deadly contagion spread rapidly around the globe. But beyond the threat to human life, no part of the world economy has been immune to its effects, including Cambodia’s brutally hit garment, or apparel, production industry.

The first storm hit in February and March, when the supply chain was severely disrupted; China provides over 60 percent of raw materials to the garment sector and these imports simply stopped as the country – where the virus first originated – went into full lockdown.

Although imports did resume, it was to be a temporary reprieve. With footfall in clothing stores all but disappearing in the West, major fashion brands reacted by landing a further blow on Cambodia’s garment industry as several clothing retail giants hastily tried to cancel both orders in process and those fully finished and awaiting shipment. According to a survey by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF), which featured the feedback of 700 garment-producing businesses, just over a third of orders were initially cancelled.

The situation prompted Ken Loo, head of the Garment Manufacturers Association (GMAC), a body established in 1996 to represent, promote and safeguard the rights and interests of the garment industry within Cambodia to say, “Brands that source from us, such as Adidas, H&M, PUMA and Levi Strauss, should take responsibility’.

Fashion retailers that originally cancelled their orders included popular European and American brands Primark and H&M. But following the publishing of a ‘name and shame’ list of companies welshing on their agreements, by the Worker Rights Consortium, Primark did a swift U-turn and committed to pay its outstanding balance of £370 million to the global garment sector. H&M followed suit, but there could be a hitch: it’s not known if the companies will be amongst those stalling the dispatch date of the goods – known as ‘sheltering in place’ – it’s only then that they are legally obliged to pay.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50719435/h ... -a-thread/

May 6, 2020
About 400 footwear workers protest over unpaid wages
About 400 footwear workers of Kun Da Footwear Co. Ltd staged a protest in the capital’s Dangkor district yesterday to demand missing wages and seniority pay.

Chhin Vanna, one of the protestors, said the factory suspended its operations at the end of last month and the employer failed to show up to pay them.

“Our employer has fled. No one has come to find a solution related to our seniority pay,” she said.

Ms Vanna said for the last wages, the company only paid some workers and not all of them.

The workers are demanding their seniority pay and that they worked with the company for nearly five years.

Another worker Kun Nenh said the company has been selling some of its machinery but until now they have not paid them.

“The company keeps promising day after day that it will pay our last wages and some benefits but until now we have not gotten anything,” she said.

Ms Nenh said workers saw the company transporting some machinery out of the factory to sell which is why they are demanding that it speeds up paying them.

“We workers are finding it difficult to find money to pay for our housing and other expenses,” she added.

On April 29, the company informed the workers it was no longer able to operate and had decided to sell off its machinery to pay seniority payments to all of them.

On Monday the Garment Manufacturing Association of Cambodia released a statement saying so far 80 factories have suspended their operations, with 60 more in the pipeline, which is wreaking havoc on more than 150,000 workers.

The statement said this will impact not only the workers but also the two million Cambodian family members who depend on them.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50720145/a ... aid-wages/

Svay Rieng Garment Factory Suspends 2,000 Workers
2 min read
Khut Sok, Thu May 7, 2020 7:27 pm

More than 2,000 garment workers have been suspended from a factory in Svay Rieng province for two months, with the company saying it cut employees because the factory had received no orders from buyers amid the Covid-19 economic downturn.

Pum Sokunthy, deputy president of the local chapter of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said You Li International (Cambodia) Garment in Bavet City suspended the workers from May 1 to June 30.
https://vodenglish.news/svay-rieng-garm ... 0-workers/

If any of those factories were making clothes for J Crew and Neiman Marcus, they can forget about shipment and payment. Both of them just announced bankruptcy.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote: ↑Fri May 08, 2020 7:33 am Svay Rieng Garment Factory Suspends 2,000 Workers
2 min read
Khut Sok, Thu May 7, 2020 7:27 pm

More than 2,000 garment workers have been suspended from a factory in Svay Rieng province for two months, with the company saying it cut employees because the factory had received no orders from buyers amid the Covid-19 economic downturn.

Pum Sokunthy, deputy president of the local chapter of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers, said You Li International (Cambodia) Garment in Bavet City suspended the workers from May 1 to June 30.
https://vodenglish.news/svay-rieng-garm ... 0-workers/

Further details on this factory:
There have been at least two strikes by garment workers at the You Li International (Cambodia) factory in Bavet over pay and a demand for better working conditions; in particular improved conditions for pregnant workers.
November 15, 2017
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/90550/prot ... ory-floor/
July 20, 2018
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/513993/you ... ry-floors/

Dignity Knitter factory workers are suffering indignities after factory closure.

Awaiting Payouts, Fired Garment Workers Keep Watch Outside Factory
7 min read
Hun Sirivadh Sat May 23, 2020 3:56 pm
TAKHMAO CITY, Kandal Province — When Sour Socheat settles in for the night under a tent in Takhmao City, she knows she will not sleep.

On the three or four nights per week that she guards the entrance of the shuttered factory where she used to work, Socheat says she and the other unemployed garment workers on watch are disturbed by animals, drug users and gangsters.

“Every night, we cannot sleep,” she said. “We need to play [games] and sit together until early morning. Sometimes big trucks drive very fast, shaking the ground, frightening us a lot, and when it is raining, we cannot sleep here and so we go to ask a neighbor’s permission to stay under their canvas for one or two nights.”

But her biggest concern is not a lack of sleep.

Socheat, 37, lost her job last month trimming excess cloth off completed pieces on the assembly line at the now-closed Dignity Knitter factory. She is most concerned that the factory’s owner will remove and sell factory equipment without compensating her and more than 1,000 other fired workers for their unpaid wages.

“We do not trust the company,” Socheat said. “It is very difficult for us, but we will still sleep [outside] and guard this factory until [our demands] are addressed.”

She is among about 100 former employees who have been taking turns camping in front of the factory since mid-January. They aim to ensure the owner does not sell garment-making equipment left inside and disappear with the money without paying workers what arbiters say they are owed by the end of May.

The workers have reason to be on guard. Located in Takhmao City’s Sitbou commune, Dignity Knitter and its sister factory Eco Base — which supplied to international brands including U.K. retailers Debenhams and John Lewis — started shorting workers of their wages in December and later fired more than 1,000 employees in total.

Nationwide, more than 100,000 garment workers have been suspended due to declining international orders and consumer demand amid the Covid-19 economic downturn, or about 1 in 8 workers in the garment sector.
https://vodenglish.news/awaiting-payout ... e-factory/

[Mod edit: off topic]

Cambodian PM says 256 factories suspended due to COVID-19, affecting over 130,000 workers
Source: Xinhua| 2020-06-01 21:46:25

PHNOM PENH, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo HE said Monday that some 256 garment, footwear and travel goods factories in Cambodia had suspended their operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting more than 130,000 workers.

Besides, about 169 companies in tourism sector had also been closed temporarily, leaving roughly 16,891 people unemployed, he added.

"To help relieve the burden of the jobless, the government and the employers have decided to pay 40 U.S. dollars and 30 U.S. dollars, respectively to each of them per month, so an unemployed worker gets 70 U.S. dollars," HE said during a visit to the southwestern coastal province of Preah Sihanouk.

European countries and the United States are major market destinations for the kingdom's garment, footwear and travel goods exports, and both have been severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as their markets continue to close and residents tighten their purse strings.

Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour said last month that factories had not received any orders from buyers for both May and June, as well as for the foreseeable future.

"We can conclude that exports of garments and footwear will be hit hard in the second quarter this year," he said. The garment, footwear and travel goods industry is Cambodia's biggest export sector, employing about 750,000 people in approximately 1,100 factories and branches, according the Labor Ministry.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapa ... 105722.htm

Shit this is not good.

My abacus is not working properly , so can someone do the maths of how much a factory that is shutdown will have to borrow to pay workers that are still on the employers books, compared to those that have been dismissed / fired, until this shutdown is over.