The Fair Labor Association (FLA), Fair Wear Foundation, Social Accountability International, 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.

On, January 13, 2017, the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) sent a letter to the prime minister of Bangladesh, expressing concern over government and employer reaction to recent garment worker protests in the Ashulia area of Dhaka, including the arrest or firing of protesting workers and the detention of union leaders and workers’ rights advocates.

During the 2015 factory assessment cycle in Vietnam, FLA assessors identified a number of instances of monetary penalties used as discipline. Because of how these deductions were designed and implemented, they may not appear to brands to violate the FLA Workplace Code of Conduct as obviously as a direct salary deduction would. However, any disciplinary penalty that reduces a worker’s pay constitutes a violation of the FLA Code (benchmark 2, “Monetary Fines and Penalties” under “Harassment or Abuse”).

At the beginning of September, FLA Vice President of Programs Jason Judd participated in the "Squaring Higher Wages and Competitiveness" conference in Ankara, co-hosted by the Just Jobs Network and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In preparation for this conference, the FLA prepared a chapter of material describing its latest work on fair compensation, which was distributed to all conference participants, as part of the publication "Global Wage Debates: Politics or Economics?".

The Fair Labor Association and four of its company affiliates that are sourcing (or considering sourcing) from Georgia wrote a letter to the Georigan Minister of Labor, expressing strong support for the setting of a fair minimum wage for workers in Georgia’s growing apparel sector. Signatories to the letter included representatives from adidas Group, New Balance, Nike, and Puma.