The problem is that chain stores and clothing brands are going out business. Neiman Marcus, luxury goods chain, famous for their catalogue that sold items like personal submarines, to JCPenney, mall clothing/general goods store. Famous clothing retailers have also gone out of business as well. They aren’t just cutting back on orders.

June 18, 2020 / 7:01 AM / Updated 14 hours ago
FEATURE-Laid off due to virus, Cambodian garment workers compete for factory shifts
Matt Blomberg, Mech Dara, Thomson Reuters Foundation

6 Min Read

PHNOM PENH, June 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For three hours, Cambodian seamstress Em Thy waited in a crowd with hundreds of other laid off garment workers on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, desperate to be selected for a one-off shift.

Defeated, the 53-year-old shouted insults at the factory recruiters as they drove away without her one morning last week.

“Why is my fate is in the hands of these despicable brokers?” Thy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, having lost her job in March after two decades of consistent factory work.

Cambodia’s textile industry - the economy’s $7 billion backbone that provides about 850,000 jobs - has been pummelled by the coronavirus pandemic with major Western retailers cancelling orders or demanding discounts from their suppliers.

About a third of its 600 garment factories are shut, which has cost tens of thousands of workers their jobs and left them struggling to survive as state aid has been slow to materialise.

Mostly women, many of them have recently joined the pre-dawn gatherings where factories send brokers to find women for off-the-books daily shifts to augment their regular labour force.

Thy said she had no choice with a family to feed but was frustrated at having to deal with brokers as they were known to play the women against each other and go back on their word.

“What do they know about my skills, about the industry?” she said. “It’s an insult that I would have to beg to them.”

Before the outbreak, nearly all of the women at the informal labour market could expect to pick up a day’s work and earn about $8, roughly in line with the minimum wage of $190 a month.

Now, the women say they are fortunate if they get one shift each week - and have less bargaining power as their ranks swell.
Full article: https://uk.reuters.com/article/health-c ... KL8N2DT1Y1
(Reporting by Matt Blomberg and Mech Dara, Editing by Kieran Guilbert. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Adidas, H&M to Continue Ordering Cambodian Products
AKP Phnom Penh, June 18, 2020 --

Adidas and H&M has responded positively to Cambodia's request to continue their orders of Cambodian products.

The two multinational companies also pledged to contribute with the Royal Government to improving the garment sector's environment in the Kingdom.

The agreements were made during a meeting here early this week between Cambodian Minister of Commerce H.E. Pan Sorasak and Mr. Matthew Armstrong, Senior Director, Sourcing Apparel Country Manager in Cambodia and Mr. Christer Horn af Aminne, Production Manager of H&M for Cambodia and Vietnam.
- AKP

June 10, 2020
Preah Sihanouk sees factory suspensions and massive job losses
Preah Sihanouk provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun yesterday announced there were 20 suspended factories in the province, affecting more than 8,000 workers, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking at a press conference, the governor said in total, there are 1,300 factories and enterprises, employing around 95,000 workers across the province.

He said of these, 20 factories have suspended operations, affecting 8,675 workers.

“As per the government’s policy, all suspended workers must receive out-of-work allowances but due to a large number of workers furloughed, there could be delays in the payment process,” he said.

However,despite the closures many factories are still fully operational and have new orders coming in.
Provincial governor Kuoch Chamroeun speaks during a press conference. KT/Khem Sovannara

“Even though COVID-19 has taken its toll on some factories and the workers, others have continued their production. We suggest that workers still employed, work overtime because new orders are still coming in,” he said.

He added specifically that one of the factories which is still open produces medical supplies and is extremely busy.

“Health materials are needed more than ever during this time. Therefore the factory is very busy which is good for workers,” he said.

Even before COVID-19, Sihanoukville had been facing high unemployment and a lack of job opportunities, which the virus has only exacerbated.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50732092/p ... ob-losses/

Cambodia garment factories call for wage cuts as pandemic bites
Unions reject appeal to government for temporary 'flexibility' on legal minimum pay
SHAUN TURTON, Contributing writerJune 23, 2020 11:40 JST

PHNOM PENH -- A group representing garment factories in Cambodia is urging the government to suspend the minimum wage to help the sector face "desperate times" in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cambodia's apparel and footwear sector is vital to the country's economy, generating $10 billion in annual exports and employing 800,000 people. It has been pummelled by the coronavirus crisis, which has wreaked havoc with global consumer demand.

More than 250 factories employing some 130,000 workers have suspended operations.

With more layoffs expected, the Garment Manufacturing Association in Cambodia proposed temporarily suspending the sector's monthly minimum wage of $190.

GMAC secretary-general Ken Loo said that with no new orders on the horizon employers needed "flexibility" to appeal to brands and avoid closure.

"Seeing that wages constitute almost up to 70% of local costs ... we really need to sit down and think about how we become more competitive overnight," Loo told the Nikkei Asian Review on Monday.

"We don't know when [demand will recover], but when that happens there will be new orders that will appear, however these limited orders will surely flock to countries that are the most price competitive."

Spearheaded by a determined union movement, Cambodia has approved several wage increases for the garment sector in recent years. Minimum salary for the sector has risen 137% since 2013.

However, businesses complain that poor infrastructure and relatively high electricity costs hamper productivity.

Loo conceded that a temporary suspension was "unlikely" because the move was unprecedented. Ministry of Labor spokesman Heng Sour said he was not aware of the proposal.

"I think we should not listen to anything that is not written in law by anyone," Sour added via message.

Yang Sophorn, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, said GMAC's proposal was an "excuse" to avoid engaging in serious wage negotiations.

The government, she said, needed to do more to support workers. "I understand that employers are facing difficulty during the crisis. But for workers, it's even worse; they'll die first before the employer," she said.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/C ... emic-bites

Survey: Cambodian workers crippled by low incomes
Written by Chris Remington
Published: 01 July 2020

PHNOM PENH – A survey of suspended factory workers, whose sites have closed either temporarily or permanently in light of the coronavirus pandemic, highlights the severity of their financial difficulties with respondents suggesting they’re eating less and have been forced to sell land in some cases to repay debts.

Of the 162 people surveyed, 73 per cent said they’re currently paying off long-standing loans with new loans from microfinance institutions (MFIs), with life on the poverty line leading many to curtail their family’s food needs, and bring their children out of school in order for them too to work.

“Hundreds of thousands of heavily indebted workers are now out of work, after hundreds of factories suspended their operations, putting them at risk of land loss and other human rights abuses,” said the report, conducted by rights groups Licadho and Central, and the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU).
https://www.ecotextile.com/202007012629 ... comes.html

July 11, 2020
Cambodia’s garment exports valued at $3.7 billion
Cambodia has exported garment products – clothes, footwear, and travel goods – with a total value of $3.7 billion in the first semester of this year, down 5 percent compared to the same period last year.

[However] In the first five months of this year, Cambodia saw growth in the export of non-garment products...

“Our garment exports, especially to the EU market, dropped but when we look at the total exported products from Cambodia to international markets, we see growth in such as bikes, rice, electronic components and some agricultural raw materials,” Mr Vissoth said.

Cambodia exported $9.3 billion worth of garment products, footwear and travel goods in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 11 percent, according to a report from the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation.
Chea Vannak – AKP

Amid Covid-19, thousands of garment workers protest for pay
18 July 2020
Khy Sovuthy

Thousands of workers at 12 shuttered garment and footwear factories have protested this year after owners have failed to pay them the salaries and benefits they are owed as the global Covid-19 pandemic has caused hundreds of factory suspensions.

Labor representatives say that many workers have not received wages and compensation pay from owners who closed their factories on short notice, while a recent government directive waived the requirement for owners to fulfil some benefits.

Khun Tharo, program manager of the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (Central) said that 12 factories employing a total of nearly 15,000 people have closed.

“Twelve factories have been shuttered and among them, some had provided compensation for workers and other factories did not,” Tharo said. “And some workers still have been continuing to protest.”

The factories that have held demonstrations to ask for the government’s help in receiving payments include Hana (Cambodia) 1 factory in Phnom Penh, New Best Global Textile Co., Ltd in Kampong Speu province, Dignity Knitter and Eco Base factories in Kandal province, and Thai Ya Garment factory also in Kandal province.

However, representatives of two factories, Hana 1 and New Best Global Textile, say that all payments owed to workers were settled on July 10, while Thai Ya factory says it resolved its pay issues on July 15. Workers at Dignity Knitter and Eco Base factories have yet to receive wages or benefit pay.

Tharo said that one of the main reasons factory workers were losing out on benefit payments was due to a directive sent by the Labor Ministry to GMAC in June stipulating that factories that suspended operations or closed due to Covid-19 did not need to provide workers notice payments or compensation, in opposition to the Labor Law.

“Joblessness is making garment workers’ lives very challenging in this economy, especially workers who lost their jobs when their factories closed and the owners did not pay them based on Labor Law,” he said, adding that many were also struggling with daily living expenses and mounting debt.

One example is the sudden closure of Dignity Knitter and Eco Base factories in Kandal province, where more than 1,000 workers have been waiting for compensation since the two factories, which have the same owner, suspended operations in March.

Phin Sophea, a Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union representative who was employed at Dignity Knitter factory, said workers had not received a solution despite promises made by provincial authorities. On July 13, workers had submitted a petition asking the government for help in dissolving a court injunction that is preventing equipment at the factories from being sold to pay workers.
Full article: https://cambojanews.com/amid-covid-19-t ... t-for-pay/

Garment unions join global campaign to protect workers
By Camboja News -
September 6, 2020

Several of Cambodia’s independent garment workers’ unions joined a global anti-union busting campaign this month as leaders and activists have said they are facing discrimination, with hundreds of members laid off in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

IndustriALL Global Union called on its members, including 10 Cambodian unions and federations, to take action to protect the rights of textile workers.

“As part of IndustriALL’s global campaign to protect the rights of workers in the textile and garment sector, join our global day of action to support the many workers across the sector who are standing up for their rights to form a union,” the group said in an announcement posted on their website.

In full: https://cambojanews.com/garment-unions- ... t-workers/

CMLV garment industry expected to be a coronavirus casualty
SEPTEMBER 09, 2020 - 11:28 AM

The regional textile industry has come under near-term threat from the global Covid-19 outbreak, especially for key producer Cambodia.

Sian Fenner, lead Asia economist at Oxford Economics, noted in a recent report that lockdowns adopted to contain the spread of the virus “have had a severe impact on manufacturing and exports” in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV).

The textile industry was singled out as a casualty, as more than 55 per cent of the materials that go to clothes manufacturing in Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam come from their Chinese neighbour where factories were shuttered in early 2020.

“The slump in external demand has also led to cancelled orders,” Ms Fenner added.

Cambodia is expected to bear the brunt of the CMLV slowdown, since 66 per cent of its exports are generated by the clothing industry, which has historically reaped the benefits from foreign direct investment (FDI).
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/asean- ... s-casualty