NIKE executives will meet their Cambodian suppliers about complain

NIKE executives will meet their Cambodian suppliers about complain 
Vincent MacIsaac and Tep Nimo, The Phnom Penh Post, April 11, 2012

NIKE executives will meet with executives of one of their suppliers in Phnom Penh today to discuss fainting incidents at its factory in Kampong Speu, union and industry representatives said yesterday.

Free Trade Union leader Chea Mony said the Nike executives would also discuss allegations of violations of workers’ rights at Taiwanese-owned Sabrina (Cambodia) Manufacturing, which he said employs about 8,000 workers.

Ken Loo, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia, said Nike was taking last week’s fainting incidents “very seriously”, adding that its regional director for Asia had flown in for meetings, which began with GMAC yesterday morning. A meeting was also held yesterday afternoon with Jill Tucker, chief technical adviser at Better Factories Cambodia, which was set up by the International Labour Organisation to monitor all garment factories that export from the Kingdom.

Tucker said Nike’s executives were “looking at all aspects of working conditions and trying to come up with a comprehensive plan that could be implemented over time to improve working conditions”.

Ken Loo said discussions with Nike focused on fainting incidents, their possible causes and how to solve them. “Everybody is looking for a solution,” he said, adding that “Nike is committed to being part of one”.

Chea Mony said the FTU had notified Nike after the first mass fainting incident at Sabrina last Wednesday and Nike subsequently sought details about the incident from the union. “Workers faint every week at Sabrina,” Chea Mony said, adding that the numbers were usually only a few and that the media only paid attention when fainting occurred en masse.

The FTU had also met with Nike executives on March 16 to discuss allegations that Sabrina management was discriminating against its members, and failing to uphold its code of conduct, he said.

Complaints from workers included forced overtime, dirty toilets and possible theft by administrative staff of overtime payment to workers, he said.

The FTU had also contacted Nike after Sabrina allegedly refused to comply with a March 27 ruling by the Arbitration Council calling on it to reinstate FTU factory leader Chy Sakla who had allegedly been dismissed for trying to unionise workers, Chea Mony said, adding that the company eventually reinstated him. Ken Loo said the case had been settled and described Cambodia as “union heaven”.

FTU representative Ouk Lina previously told the Post that the first fainting incident happened after workers were overcome by fumes from glue used to lay tiles, and that the tiling was being done to bring the factory up to standards set by Nike.

A second mass fainting incident occurred on Friday, and on Sunday, opposition MP Mu Sochua called for a boycott of global brands, including Nike, which failed to immediately address the fainting incidents and violations of labour rights at garment factories here.

Dave Welsh, country director of the American Centre for International Labour Solidarity, said that if Nike was serious about its commitment to its code of corporate responsibility, it should become more engaged with Sabrina and help it alleviate the causes of the fainting incidents.

Nike has “an opportunity to put its money where its mouth is”, he said.

Welsh stressed that the problems facing Cambodia’s garment industry were “fixable”, and that the country continued to offer global brands an opportunity for creating a template for how a socially responsible supply chain could function.

The faintings have been attributed to a combination of factors, including poor nutrition, forced or coerced overtime and poor occupational health and safety. Some industry executives and Better Factories Cambodia have also said that “mass psychogenic illness” was a factor in the faintings.

Welsh said he hoped to meet with the Nike executives. “The thing about Cambodia is that it has the potential to be a model for the industry,” he said, adding that this shift would require more investment from buyers.

Loo said any pay rise for workers would have to come from the buyers, because contract manufacturers had low profit margins. The dynamic between buyers and suppliers had switched from one in which price was negotiated to one in which buyers dictated the price, he said.

He also said that faintings were difficult to alleviate because the incidents had no single cause.

“If someone could come up with a cure, all the stakeholders would buy in,” he added.

Nike executives have yet to respond to requests for comment. Officials at the labour ministry either did not answer the phone or hung up when contacted by the Post. Sabrina executives could not be reached by either landlines or mobile numbers yesterday.

Cambodia: Protest ends, dispute goes on

Cambodia: Protest ends, dispute goes on
Tep Nimol , Phnompenh post, 4 January 2012

A protest at a Taiwanese-owned garment factory in Kandal province ended yesterday with an agreement between management and workers, following an urgent meeting with local officials to avoid a traffic jam in front of the factory on Highway No 4.

Protesters at Kwei Yang garment factory in Ang Snuol district said they had nine demands but would return to work this morning after having settled or agreed to continue negotiating with management on seven points, with the two most contentious demands to go to the Arbitration Council.

Tok Kim San, the factory’s chief of administration, said some workers had been confused about the US$5 monthly health bonus announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen in November, which takes effect this month.

They convinced other workers that they had been cheated out of the bonus and incited them to strike, he said.

“The company follows the law,” Tok Kim San said, adding that some demands went beyond what the law requires and that these would be brought to the Arbitration Council.

Factory worker Moy Samlot said yesterday’s protest by more than 400 workers in front of the factory followed a protest by about 200 workers on Saturday.

The company failed to negotiate with them on Saturday so they protested again, she said.

Moy Samlot said the main disagreement was over a monthly $5 bonus.

“Last month, the company divided the bonus into weekly payments and deducted it from workers who declined to work overtime,” she said.

Cheng Sovann, vice-president of the Cambodian National Confederation for Labourers’ Protection, said union representatives, officials from the provincial labour department, the district military commander and company representatives held an urgent meeting to resolve the strike to avoid bringing traffic on the highway to a standstill.

“Workers and the company settled five points and agreed to discuss two other points on January 12,” he said. Two other demands, the $5 monthly incentive and alleged deductions of bonuses, would be sent to Arbitration Council for a solution, he said.

Sok Khem, deputy director of the labour department’s labour office, said she joined the meeting to explain labour laws to workers, not to negotiate a resolution.

She said the Arbitration Council would invite both sides to a meeting today.

“The workers’ demands exceed benefits allowed under the law.

They still do not understand clearly, although legal points were explained many times,” she said.

Cambodian Workers stand firm as dispute gets fiery

Cambodian Workers stand firm as dispute gets fiery
Mom Kunthear, Phnompenh Post, Wednesday, 14 December 2011

A dispute sparked by the firing of a union representative at a garment factory in the capital’s Dangkor district last week will continue until the company reinstates the employee and meets other demands of the newly formed union, workers representatives said yesterday, after a morning protest in which they set tyres aflame in front of the factory.

“More than 100 workers protested for about two hours and will do so again today,” said Yang Thaisan, secretary-general of the Union Federation of Labour Rights at Shinglecom Cambodia garment factory.

Protesters also called for better working condition, benefits and payment, and for a Chinese manager to be fired for using obscene language, Yang Thaisan said.

Workers had asked the company to join negotiations with labour ministry officials on Friday but the company had not attended, he said.

Va Yuvavathana, director of the labour dispute resolution office at the labour ministry, said officials would send the case to the Arbitration Council.

A Shinglecom executive, who declined to be named, said most workers had returned to work after yesterday morning’s protest, but worker representative Lao Sokhorn said only about 30 per cent of them had.

Cambodian Workers stand firm as dispute gets fiery