Two prominent fashion industry trade groups have penned a letter expressing their “grave alarm” at an upcoming “national security” audit of a Phnom Penh-based labor rights organization that recently threw the spotlight on employer-imposed obstacles to freedom of association in the country’s garment industry.
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The timing of the investigation makes it appear that the probe’s “sole purpose” is to retaliate against the Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights, better known by its acronym CENTRAL, the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) and the Fair Labor Association (FLA) wrote on behalf of members such as H&M Group, Nike and Zara owner Inditex. As such, the organizations are calling “in the strongest possible terms” for the audit to be dropped.
“Our members value the strong, and growing, relationship with your country, which has risen to become the No. 3 supplier of travel goods, the No. 4 supplier of footwear and the No. 6 supplier of garments to the U.S. market as well as a major supplier of garments, shoes and travel goods to Europe and Canada,” Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the AAFA, and Jeff Vockrodt, president and CEO of the FLA, wrote in a letter dated July 12 to Deputy Prime Minister Abhisantibindit Sar Sokha, Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Heng Sour and Minister of Commerce Cham Nimul. “One of the key reasons this relationship is so valuable is the Cambodian government’s respect for civil society, freedom of speech, and freedom of association, which is called into question by this audit.”
The United States is the number one destination for Cambodian goods, accounting for nearly 36 percent of the country’s exports, or $4.4 billion’s worth, in the first six months of 2024, according to the General Department of Customs and Excise. Most of this was garments, textiles, footwear and travel goods
Funded by Swiss nonprofit Solidar Suiss and published in early June, CENTRAL’s report criticized the International Labour Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) initiative for failing to identify breaches of workers’ rights, and in so doing undermining Cambodia’s constitution, labor laws and human rights commitments. Despite “perfect” BFC scores on freedom of association criteria at the 14 factories included in the study, the report said, union representatives at 10 of them said they encountered barriers such as verbal intimidation, threats, harassment and blacklisting, “severely” hampering their ability to operate.
Part of the broader Better Work Program, BFC began in 2001 with the goal of improving garment worker conditions through a combination of labor monitoring and training. To date, it covers over 651,000 workers across 700 factories, or more than three-quarters of the Cambodian garment sector’s total. Some 45 brands and retailers participate in the program, including H&M, Nike and Inditex, though no international buyers were named in CENTRAL’s report.
BFC appeared to take both the paper’s criticisms and recommendations in stride, saying that it appreciated the feedback and is aware of the limitations of its assessments, though its work with unions and on freedom of association extends beyond them. CENTRAL had suggested the establishment of a BFC-specific grievance mechanism for compliance violations, improved accessibility of assessments and more direct engagement with a broader swath of workers and worker representatives, among other things.
“We are committed to exploring opportunities to better communicate the full scope of our program,” a Better Factories Cambodia spokesperson said after the release of the report. “We will discuss potential improvements internally based on the recommendations received, and will also continue our engagement with both CENTRAL and Solidar Suisse.”
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But more than a dozen “pro-government” unions have claimed that CENTRAL’s report does not accurately reflect conditions in the industry and therefore could harm existing and future investment. It’s these unions, according to the Clean Clothes Campaign, the garment industry’s largest consortium of trade unions and labor groups, that have filed letters of petition requesting that the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training and Ministry of Interior investigate CENTRAL’s operations and finances.
“This smear campaign against CENTRAL fits in seamlessly with the wider repression against labor and human rights advocates in the country,” the Clean Clothes Campaign said in a statement late last month. “Civic space has been under enormous pressure in Cambodia for years now…..The current targeted attacks on CENTRAL appear coordinated and a well-planned effort to eliminate yet another independent voice in Cambodia’s civic space landscape.”
The AAFA and FLA agree that “robust discourse,” even if critical, is necessary to a “thriving and successful society.”
“Government and global buyers are sometimes challenged by what they perceive as misleading or inaccurate allegations made by NGOs,” Lamar and Vockrodt wrote. “However, the overriding value of freedom of speech in ensuring a free civil society means that the appropriate response in such cases is to speak up and counter those claims, rather than to eliminate the ability of those we may disagree with to speak at all.”
To accept anything else, they said, would create a “chilling effect” not only on civil society but also a society’s “perceived viability” as a responsible sourcing destination.
“In the strongest possible terms, we again call on the Cambodian government to immediately cancel its upcoming ‘national security’ audit of CENTRAL and refrain from taking any measures that could be, and will be, perceived as intimidation and harassment of this NGO or any other NGO,” they added. “With the name ‘Cambodia’ increasingly printed on our member brands’ products, your actions immediately impact our member brands’ values, reputations and legal obligations”.
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