The Fair Labor Association (FLA), Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), Social Accountability International (SAI), and five affiliates sourcing from Cambodia have written to the Cambodian prime minister, expressing concern about recent developments related to the country’s minimum wage law, arbitration council, trade union law, and commitment to workers’ freedom of association.
This outreach follows a July letter to the government by the FLA objecting to proposals that would curtail the ability of brands and civil society to conduct research on minimum wage issues in Cambodia. While more recent encouraging developments suggest that NGOs, unions, and others may be able to continue independent research on wage issues, provisions of the current draft minimum wage law nonetheless impose heavy fines and penalties on workers who express dissent with wage levels set by the government.
The letter below opposes these moves against workers’ freedom of expression, encourages continuous improvement of the national Arbitration Council through the inclusion of minority unions, urges reforms to allow unions and civil society organizations to operate more effectively in Cambodia, and calls for charges to be dropped against union leaders facing legal action stemming from garment worker strikes in 2014.