Fashion workers urge H&M to deliver a living wage
While the Swedish retailer pays better than other factories its employees in Cambodia say salaries are barely enough to live on
Phnom Penh — In an industry riddled with poor health, abuse and labour exploitation, Yim Srey Neang and her colleagues are pleased to have garment factory jobs that are relatively stable and safe. They speak highly of their employers as representatives of 4,000 people toiling in a factory that supplies fashion giant H&M from the outskirts of the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. But when conversation turns to the so-called fair living wage, the tone shifts: several factory workers begin firing off laundry lists of life’s necessities — food, shelter, education, health care — and their prices in an onslaught of discontent. “No, it’s not fair,” Srey Neang said on a tour of the factory organised by H&M, the world’s second biggest fashion retailer with more than 4,800 stories in 71 countries. “Our salary does not allow us to save money, it’s barely enough to live on.” Neang is one of 1.6-million people worldwide working in factories that supply H&M — part of a global fashion industry that e...
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