When questions were raised in the European Union (EU) regarding workers’ rights in Cambodia, the country responded by promising laborers in the garment industry a 4.4% raise to the legal minimum wage by January 2020.
The textiles and footwear industry employs the largest number of workers in Cambodia, generating seven billion dollars per year with over one third of its exports going to the EU.
The country benefits from a programme developed by the EU called “Everything But Arms” (EBA) which allows least-developed countries to export goods to the EU duty-free. But earlier this year, the EU began a consideration that could suspend the EBA programme for Cambodia due to workers’ substantially low incomes.
Cambodia will increase the garment worker’s wages to $190 a month, just $5 short of the Collective Union Movement of Workers’ demands, says its president Pav Sina. “Even though this figure is not what we wanted as our position, it is positive, as Cambodia is in the midst of uncertainties of the trade preferences,” adds Sina.
