Brands say they will pay more for clothes

In an unprecedented move, eight major fashion retailers have said they are prepared to pay more for clothes made in Cambodia. It follows a global day of action by unions in support of garment workers’ demands for a higher wage, in a campaign that gathered momentum after repeated reports of workers collapsing at work as a result of poor working conditions and malnutrition.

In an unprecedented move, eight major fashion retailers have said they are prepared to pay more for clothes made in Cambodia.

It follows a global day of action by unions in support of garment workers’ demands for a higher wage. The campaign gathered momentum after repeated reports of workers collapsing at work as a result of poor working conditions and malnutrition. A number are believed to have died .

Now brands, which include one of Cambodia’s biggest buyers, H&M, as well as Inditex (Zara) and Primark, have written to the Cambodian deputy prime minister and the chair of the Garments Manufacturers Association (GMAC) saying they are ready to factor higher wages into their pricing. Furthermore, the brands, which also include Next, New Look, C&A, Tchibo and N Brown Group, say they want to see cooperation with trade unions in the workplace. The letter was sent the day after a union-orchestrated global day of action on 17 September.

Jyrki Raina, general secretary of the global union IndustriALL, which has eight affiliated garment worker unions in Cambodia, said: “Factory owners have no excuse not to pay their workers more. What’s more, the Cambodian government should raise the minimum wage significantly. The letter also shows the brands recognise that unions are key to securing better worker rights, a fair living wage and a stable market.”

Thousands of garment workers donned orange t-shirts in their lunch hour to demonstrate outside factories on 17 September for an increase in the minimum wage from US$100 to US$177 per month. The action was supported by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the global unions IndustriALL and UNI. Scores of NGOs also supported the initiative, which saw protests at stores across the world.

Cambodia’s Labour Advisory Committee is expected to announce the new level for the minimum wage in early October.