One of last-remaining independent worker rights organizations active in Cambodia has found itself in the crosshairs of the country’s government due to its reporting on freedom of association in the garment industry.
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The Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights (CENTRAL), which on June 4 published a white paper pinpointing the barriers to representation impacting workers in the sector, is under threat of investigation by the Cambodian Ministry of the Interior (MoI).
CENTRAL’s report analyzed and critiqued processes employed by the International Labor Organization ’s (ILO) Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program, which monitors apparel factories’ compliance with international labor standards and serves as a resource for brands across the globe, from H&M to Inditex, C&A and Nike.
According to CENTRAL, BFC’s recent assessment of Cambodia’s garment factories falls short of addressing the true nature of employer-imposed barriers to freedom of association, in that it paints a rosier picture of the employer-union relationship than the reality organized workers are experiencing on the ground .
Over the course of a year, CENTRAL followed up with union leaders and representatives from 14 of the 703 BFC-assessed factories to assess their members’ ability to access and understand BFC’s public data. It also attempted to verify BFC’s public compliance reports for the Cambodian factories against interviews with the union stakeholders.
“Our interviews with factory unions and workers revealed multiple challenges for workers in both accessing and utilizing this data. Workers also identified considerable inconsistencies between the data and their lived experiences,” CENTRAL wrote.
“Despite perfect BFC scores on [freedom of association] criteria at all the 14 factories included in this study, union representatives at 10 of the 14 workplaces reportedly faced obstructions to [freedom of association] including verbal intimidation, threats, harassment, and blacklisting, severely affecting their ability to function.”
In its report, CENTRAL made suggestions to BFC on how to improve its assessment process and gather more accurate data from workers and unions—proposals that were provided to the organization before publication.
Still, the report garnered considerable backlash—not from BFC or its parent ILO , but from pro-government “yellow” unions concerned that CENTRAL’s reporting could harm the Cambodian garment sector and spook foreign investors.
These groups quickly engaged the Cambodian MoI, pushing it to launch an investigation into CENTRAL’s operations and finances.
According to Clean Clothes Campaign living wage coordinator Anne Bienias, the accusations could imperil CENTRAL’s work in Cambodia, as past investigations into NGOs serving other sectors have resulted in both temporary and permanent suspensions of operations.
Bienias said she believes the Cambodian government has been “waiting for an opportunity to shut down CENTRAL.” Following elections in 2016 and 2017, the country become much less hospitable to critical voices, with organizations like Human Rights Watch shuttering its office in Cambodia over safety concerns, she said by way of example.
“It’s clear that the report itself is absolutely not the problem—they just using it as a hook to create all this buzz,” she explained.
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According to Bienias, the government-affiliated unions pushing for an investigation into CENTRAL are filing new requests daily, accusing the NGO of unspecified illegal activities funded by foreign money.
The “yellow” union coalition also claims that freedom of association and freedom of speech are protected effectively in the Cambodian garment sector, and that CENTRAL’s overblown reporting has damaged the country’s economy and endangered workers’ livelihoods.
“This is language that we’re typically getting from employers’ rights [groups]—as soon as you say something critical about the industry, [they believe] investors or brands will run away and choose to invest somewhere else,” Bienias explained.
Tharo Khun, CENTRAL’s program manager, told Sourcing Journal that the situation remains “very uncertain and unpredictable” due to the ongoing “smear campaign” against the organization.
Khun, who has been personally targeted by pro-government unions and may be facing a lawsuit due to his work in Cambodia, said the attack on the group has been multi-faceted and strategic, employing pro-government media to amplify messaging against CENTRAL.
“The worst case scenario risk facing CENTRAL would be a suspension or shutdown by the Ministry of Interior. As CENTRAL is registered under the MoI, they could use a variety of tactics to open a formal investigation of CENTRAL to summon our leadership for questioning, officially suspend us (for a matter of weeks or months) or withdraw our registration,” he explained.
In 2017, the MoI suspended another Cambodian NGO, Equitable Cambodia, for six months under similar circumstances. Under Cambodia’s Law on Associations and Non-Governmental Organizations (LANGO), the MoI has the power to investigate CENTRAL and deliver a recommendation for its closure.
The program manager said the government’s actions aim to protect the Cambodian garment industry from scrutiny and safeguard the burgeoning sector’s economic viability.
“We believe that the overwhelmingly positive statements made by Cambodian stakeholders at this month’s [International Labor Conference] in Geneva, of which the Minister of Labor and several non-independent unions attended, are strong indications of the RGC’s intentions to portray Cambodia in a positive light on Freedom of Association (FoA),” he added.
Now, Khun said he and his colleagues are on “very high alert” and are worried that the spotlight on the conflict has “increased the visibility and vulnerability of our leadership.”
“We have to recognize that individuals could… submit complaints to the courts, which could obstruct our leadership and engagement with the union movement, as well putting us at personal risk of legal action like any others prominent human rights and labor rights advocates,” he said.
As of Thursday, the MoI has not confirmed its intention to formally launch an investigation into CENTRAL. Sources say attempts at de-escalation are being made.
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