CNRP Lawmaker Visits Controversial Plantation
May 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, Industry, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Opposition lawmaker Son Chhay said yesterday that he would ask the government to cancel the land concession of a Vietnamese rubber firm in Ratanakkiri province he accused of logging and exporting wood illegally.
Mr. Chay, a candidate in July’s national election for the Cambodia National Rescue Party, wrapped up a three-day visit to Company 72’s rubber plantation in O’Yadaw district yesterday, during which he said he saw the firm’s employees logging inside thick, healthy forest. The country’s forest laws only allow concessionaires to fell forests inside their boundaries if degraded. …
Human rights groups and local communities have long accused rubber firms operating in Ratanakkiri of illegally encroaching on ethnic minority land and clearing community forests vital to the province’s minority groups. …
Aun Pheap, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Abused women’s support services to expand
May 22nd, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Labor, News Source, Social Concerns
Helping women find better employment opportunities is key to ensuring they feel able to report rape and sexual abuse, government and civil society representatives said yesterday.
Although Cambodian courts are prosecuting an increasing number of cases involving violence against women, economic concerns stop many from reporting all but the most extreme abuse, officials said. …
As part of the action plan, the ministry hopes to expand a program of one-stop service centres currently based in Siem Reap and Kampong Thom provinces, which offer victims healthcare, legal and social consultation and career training. …
Justine Drennan and Sen David
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052265772/National/abused-women-s-support-services-to-expand.html
Trafficked numbers rising
May 22nd, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, International Relations, Labor, News Source, Social Concerns
Their stories have become all too familiar – Cambodian fishermen enslaved on fishing boats after being promised lucrative jobs overseas. They’re also becoming increasingly common.
Anti-trafficking NGOs told the Post this week that they have noticed an exponential increase in the number of trafficking complaints from fishermen trapped abroad.
In the past two years, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) aided in the repatriation of just over 100 Cambodians. But in just the first five months of 2013, the IOM has assisted in the return of 63 Cambodians – mostly from Malaysia, Indonesia and Mauritius. …
Two weeks ago, Taiwanese national Lin Yu Shin, 53, was arrested in Siem Reap on charges of trafficking Cambodians onto Taiwanese fishing trawlers off the coast of Africa.
According to the Association of Cambodian Recruitment Agencies, Lin’s company – Giant Ocean International Fishery – had already been operating for several years before it obtained its Ministry of Labour licence in 2009, and was part of a bigger network that dealt with partners in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Community Legal Education Centre (CLEC), estimates the company trafficked some 1,000 Cambodians. …
Danson Cheong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052265773/National/trafficked-numbers-rising.html
At 10th Anniversary, Arbitration Council Faces Funding Shortage
May 22nd, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns, Technical Assistance
The Arbitration Council, an independent body that resolves labor disputes in Cambodia’s garment sector, celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday, though officials expressed concern that funding for the body was due to run out in March next year.
Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor, said the Arbitration Council currently receives all its funding from the World Bank’s good governance project and that more funds are needed to ensure the body–which has resolved nearly 1,500 industrial disputes, survives. …
Speaking after the conference, Mr. Mean said it was not the responsibility of the government to fund the body but that of the Arbitration Council itself. …
In the 10 years since funding for the International Labor Organization helped establish the Arbitration Council, it has resolved nearly 1,500 industrial disputes involving more than 600,00 workers. It also claims an 80 percent success rate in preventing strikes during negotiations.
Simon Henderson, P.20
www.cambodiadaily.com
As Foreign Aid Increases, Questions About Conditions
May 21st, 2013, VOA Khmer, Construction, Economics, Foreign Aid, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Social Concerns, Technical Assistance
Cambodia has seen huge growth of foreign aid and loans over the past two decades, but experts are beginning to question its worth—and what conditions might be attached.
Total aid from 1993 to 2012 amounts to around $10 billion, with the percentage of aid coming as loans steadily increasing. And a larger portion of that money is now coming from China, in a shift from the typical international aid patterns. …
Cambodia received a total aid package of $550 million in 2004, according to government figures. By 2012, that number increased to $1.38 billion, an increase of about 14 percent per year.
China has been behind much of that increase, but other aid comes from international donors like Australia, Japan and the US, as well as the Asian Development Bank and the UN. …
But donor priorities have shifted over the years. The health sector, for example, which was traditionally the most funded, has been surpassed by projects for infrastructure in recent years. Again, Chinese money accounts for the shift. Infrastructure aid has increased from $185 million in 2010 to $376 million in 2012. …
Yim Sovann, spokesman for the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said Chinese loans have higher interest rates compared to other donors, and the deals aren’t transparent.
“Some aid is useful, but some is not,” he said. Substandard road construction, subject to corruption and non-transparent bidding, for example, is not good for the country, he said. “Only one or two years after construction, the road is damaged again,” he said.
There are also those who argue that Cambodia is taking in too much aid. …
Theara Khoun
http://www.voacambodia.com/content/as-foreign-aid-increases-questions-about-conditions/1664821.html
Fear Remains as Factory Reopens
May 21st, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor, News Source, Social Concerns
More than 20 people fainted yesterday at the Wing Star Shoes factory in Kampong Speu province, where two workers were crushed to death in a ceiling collapse last Thursday.
Workers and union officials said an electrical short-circuit scared workers returning for the first time since the tragedy.
Hong Seng Lim, president of the Development Movement Union of Cambodia Labour at Wing Star, said 21 workers were taken to hospital, but their conditions weren’t serious.
“An electric short-circuit made a loud noise, scaring workers and causing them to run out of the factory.”
Wing Star, a supplier to Japanese brand Asics, allowed its 7,000 workers the rest of the day off, Seng Lim said. …
Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052165744/National/fear-remains-as-factory-reopens.html
Factory Dining Hall Collapses in Phnom Penh; 23 injured
May 21st, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
The dining hall of a garment factory in Phnom Penh’s Meanchey district that supplies clothes to U.S. brand Gap collapsed into a pond Monday, injuring more than 20 workers who were eating lunch, workers and officials said.
The hall, which is part of Top World Garment (Cambodia) Ltd. in Kbal Koh commune but outside the main building, collapsed at 11:40 a.m., according to commune police chief Mao Rith. …
The accident comes only five days after another factory in Kompong Speu province experienced a ceiling collapse that left two workers dead. Government and factory officials yesterday said the Taiwanese-owned Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. was safe enough for staff to go back to work.
“Tomorrow, the workers will return to work so that the production chain will not be affected,” said Oum Mean, secretary of state at the Ministry of Labor. …
Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP) election candidate Mu Sochua… said the CNRP is demanding a transparent inspection of Wing Star Shoes, as well as all the other factories in the country.
She also called for the prosecution of all the individuals who were involved in the oversight of the building’s illegal construction. …
Chin Chan and Chhorn Chansy
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-dining-hall-collapses-in-phnom%E2%80%88penh-23-injured-25558/
Troubled Village Embroiled In New Land Disputes
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Farming, Forests, Industry, Land Tenure, Protected Areas, Social Concerns, Social Land Concessions
A year after a massive military raid here that left a 14-year old girl dead and hundreds of families evicted, there remains little sign of the original land dispute that turned this rural village into a hotbed of agitation.
But a new firm and a government-issued social land concession for other evictees in the province are creating new problems in the area.
Four months before the military raided Broma on May 16, 2012, hundreds of families had been protesting against a local rubber plantation owned by the private firm Casotim for allegedly encroaching on their farms. …
But old land disputes are giving way to new ones here, thanks to yet another agri-business firm’s plans in the area and the government’s own designs to turn nearly 19,000 hectares on the edge of the village into a social land concession for families across the province either without land or displaced by land disputes. …
[Technical officer for the provincial government’s department of land management] Mr. [Chan] Kong said the government had plans to clear 18,838 hectares of land and would eventually move 3,000 families who had been displaced by other land disputes across the province.
He rejected the families’ claims that the concession would take over any long-standing farms and said those claiming otherwise were opportunists hoping to stake out land they had never farmed. …
Contacted by phone, village chief Chea Chin said there was also more than farmland at stake. He said that hundreds of ethnic Cham families the government has sent to the village to move onto a new social land concession have already started clearing a 580-hectare government approved community forest the entire village and its 600 families rely on. …
The village chief said another 74 local families were also accusing a new rubber plantation in the area of encroaching on their farms. …
Mr. Kong…. confirmed that there was a 5,000-hectare concession in the area. …
Zsombor Peter and Aun Pheap
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/troubled-village-embroiled-in-new-land-disputes-25184/
Protestors Block National Road Over Energy Prices
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Electricity, Energy, Infrastructure, Social Concerns
About 300 people on Saturday blocked off a stretch of National Road 5 in Banteay Meanchey province protesting what they call is an unfair increase in electricity prices. …
Protesters believe that the private electricity supplier, Sok Vitith, altered the Commune’s electricity converter without telling the consumers so that it now produces 160 kilovolt-amps (KVA) instead of the usual 100 KVA.
“I reject the claim I did it for my own benefit. I had to do it because there was not enough electricity to supply the commune, so in April, I changed the electricity cabinet from 100 KVA to 160 KVA,” he [Sok Vitith] said.
Blaming the villager’s soaring usage on the increased use of appliances during recent hot weather, Mr. Vitith said that he had accepted villagers complaints and had yesterday reinstalled the 100 KVA converter. …
Khuon Narim, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
Trade Deal Threat Still On Table
May 20th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Economics, Exports, International Relations, Land Tenure, News Source, Social Concerns, Trade
The European union’s executive arm has responded to its parliamentarians’ concerns over rights abuses stemming from Cambodia’s economic land concessions, maintaining that, should the need arise, it “will be ready” to withdraw from its preferential trade agreements with the Kingdom.
In a joint letter to concerned members of parliament on Wednesday, European Commission member Karel De Gucht and vice president Katherine Ashton said they were monitoring the situation, and had stressed to the Cambodian government the importance of reforms, as well as the consequences of losing the no-tariff agreement, commonly known as “Everything But Arms” (EBA). …
One of the conditions of the EBA is that beneficiary countries adhere to rights declarations such as the International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment, both of which concessionaires – particularly in the Kingdom’s sugar industry – have been accused of violating. …
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052065716/National/trade-deal-threat-still-on-table.html
Factory Orders Staff Back to Work Amid Safety Concerns
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
Employees at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in Kompong Speu province where two workers were killed when one of the building’s floors collapsed on Thursday have been ordered back to work today, despite ongoing concerns from labor activists about the building’s safety.
While conceding that some parts of the building—including the section that collapsed—had been built without a permit and were potentially unstable, an official for the provincial department of land management said Sunday that workers could safely return to work as “warning signs” would be erected to avert employees from parts of the factory still deemed unsafe.
“There are two illegal extensions to the building, which have to be removed,” said Mam Narey, bureau chief of the provincial construction department. “We cannot keep them because it is very dangerous for the workers.” …
The mezzanine level of the Wing Star Shoes Co. Ltd. in Kong Pisei district collapsed on Thursday morning, crushing workers who were arriving at the factory. According to the authorities, steel beams holding up the concrete flooring buckled under the weight of boxes of shoes due to shoddy construction done without a permit. …
“Safe and ethical working conditions are of paramount importance to ASICS. We have launched our own investigation into the cause of the incident in full cooperation with the relevant authorities. In addition to our ASICS staff already on site, two representatives plus related people from ASICS corporation headquarters will travel to Phnom Penh and personally evaluate progress of investigations,” said Katsumi Funakoshi, general manager of public relations department for ASICS.
“The decision to re-open or continue to work with this factory would be considered after the result of investigation by ourselves, by the third party and by the government,” he added. …
“Just like in a house, when you build a small roof for the dog, and if that small roof collapses, you will not suggest that the whole house is going to collapse,” [ Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia chairman] Mr. [Van] Sou Leng said. …
He also said that the paying of money to families of the dead and injured over the weekend was “insulting.”
“There’s the criminal aspect of an illegal construction that resulted in the death of workers,” Mr. Welsh said. “To think that they are offering money to families over the weekend to prevent the criminal suit is ludicrous and frankly should not stand.”
According to Ms. Hour, the factory representative, nine of the injured workers who went to Calmette Hospital had received $1,700 each. Victims with minor injuries at the district referral hospital received $550 each, she said.
“For each dead victim, the factory donated $6,500 to each family to hold the funeral,” Ms. Hour said. “We wanted to negotiate compensation with them but right now, they don’t want to talk. They need time.” …
Chhorn Chansy and Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/factory-orders-staff-back-to-work-amid-safety-concerns-25192/
EU Won’t Investigate Land Concessions—for Now
May 20th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Agriculture & Agri-business, Agro-Industry, Business & Commercial Development, Disputed Land, Economic Land Concessions, Economics, Exports, Garment Industry, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Trade
The trade commissioner and foreign affairs representative of the European Union (E.U.) have turned down a request from 13 members of the European Parliament that they immediately investigate Cambodia’s much criticized economic land concessions, but said they were monitoring the issue closely.
In a March letter to Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht and the E.U.’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Catherine Ashton, the lawmakers asked for an immediate investigation into the concessions, which they accuse of a raft of human rights abuses. They also asked that if the investigation corroborated their claims that the E.U. suspend the duty free access Cambodian exports currently enjoy to Europe under the Everything But Arms trade scheme—part of the E.U.’s Generalized System of Preferences (GSP).
Their request followed a resolution to the same effect passed by the entire European Parliament in October. …
The commission currently requires that human rights violations be “serious and systematic” before it launches an investigation that could strip a country of GSP benefits. In a report on Cambodia’s land concessions last year, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights to the country, Surya Subedi, said that rights violations tied to the concessions were “serious and widespread.” …
While garments make up most of the trade, the E.U. has come under particular fire for giving duty free access to Cambodian sugar due to the rights abuses alleged at a pair of Koh Kong province plantations growing the commodity. Hundreds of local families accuse the plantations of stealing their farms, sometimes violently, and offering them little to no compensation. …
Zsombor Peter
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/eu-wont-investigate-land-concessions-for-now-25194/
Ministers sign deals to bolster trust
May 18th, 2013, Bangkok Post, Disputed Land, Environment & Natural Resources, Industry, International Relations, Land Tenure, Social Concerns, Timber/Wood
Thailand and Cambodia have signed four new agreements focused on bolstering trust and maintaining security.
Defence Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat made the announcement after the 9th GBC meeting at Wangjuntr Golf Park in Rayong’s Wang Chan district.
He said one of the four agreements concerned the spread of information.
Both parties committed to promoting positive and factual information about each other to help bolster trust and respect, the minister said.
The second agreement concerns the suppression of illegal activities in border areas, especially drug smuggling and logging. …
The third agreement involves supporting residents living in border areas by promoting job creation, tourism, education and health care. …
Both parties also agreed to endorse the results of the Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings, which aim to solve border disputes, as well as the joint agreement on landmine clearance drawn up by the Thailand and Cambodian Mine Action Centres.
Bangkok Post Staff
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/350635/ministers-sign-deals-to-bolster-trust
ASICS Wants Monitoring Of Cambodian Sub-Contractors After Accident
May 17th, 2013, The Nation, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Economics, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
The Japanese athletics brand ASICS said Friday that it would push its four Cambodian sub-contractors to join a programme that monitors conditions in garment and shoe factories. …
“We will strongly request to our sub-contractors in Cambodia to sign up to this programme,” Katsumi Funakoshi, ASICS spokesman, said by email. …
The Better Factories Cambodia programme, which is voluntary, was set up in 2001 and is run by the International Labour Organization. It monitors factories making clothing and shoes for export to ensure they comply with a range of issues, such as fire safety, working conditions and prompt payment of wages.
Thursday’s accident showed the programme should also monitor factory construction, its chief technical adviser, Jill Tucker, said. …
She called on the hundreds of buyers from other countries that source from Cambodia, including Japan, to take responsibility for the factories where their products were made and join the initiative. …
The Nation Staff
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/ASICS-wants-monitoring-of-Cambodian-sub-contractor-30206398.html
Cambodia sends 4,779 laborers abroad in Q1
May 17th, 2013, Global Times, Industry, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
Cambodia has dispatched 4,779 workers to Thailand, South Korea and Japan in the first three months of this year, according to a report from the Ministry of Labor on Friday.
During the January-March period this year, the country sent 4, 100 workers to Thailand, 678 workers to South Korea, and one worker to Japan, the report said.
Cambodian laborers work in industries and construction in Thailand, in the fields of manufacture, agriculture, construction and fishing in South Korea, and in small-sized industries in Japan. …
Currently, about 125,000 Cambodian laborers are working legally in Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia and Japan. Those migrant workers have sent home about 200 million US dollars a year, the Ministry of Labor said. …
Xinhua News Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/782384.shtml#.UZmh4KKj2xA
Malaysian couple jailed for starving maid to death
May 17th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
A Malaysian Court yesterday sentenced a couple to 24 years in jail for culpable homicide after their Cambodian maid starved to death while working for them in their home on the northwest coast of Penag, Agence France Press (AFP) reported. …
Cambodian opposition lawmaker and former Minister of Women’s Affairs Mu Sochua yesterday welcomed the sentence, saying it was a positive sign as it marked the first time the Malaysian authorities had put anyone on trail following the abuse or death of a Cambodian domestic worker in that country. …
In October 2011, Prime Minister Hun Sen banned the sending of Cambodian domestic workers to Malaysia after mounting reports of abuse and generally harsh and inhumane working conditions. …
Since the moratorium on sending workers to Malaysia, both countries said they would work on an agreement to protect Cambodian workers in Malaysia.
An initial draft by Malaysia was much-criticized for not including, for example, rules on minimum wage. …
Denise Hruby, P.19
www.cambodiadaily.com
After Factory Collapse, Questions Mount Over ILO Monitoring
May 17th, 2013, The Cambodia Daily, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
Labor rights activists and a government official accused the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia program of ineffectiveness in its monitoring of factory conditions following a deadly ceiling collapse on Thursday at a shoe factory in Kompong Speu province.
Moeun Tola, labor program head of the Community Legal Education Center, a labor rights group, said that Better Factories Cambodia had failed workers by not disclosing the names of factories that flout the country’s laws on factory health and safety. …
In February, a team of Stanford University Law School researchers published a report titled Monitoring in the Dark, charging that the lack of transparency in the Better Factories program had actually set back garment industry standards for Cambodian workers, compared to their counterparts in China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
The researchers also said that the ILO’s “confidential reporting practice” reduces incentives for factory owners and international brands to improve working conditions in Cambodian factories. …
Authorities yesterday said the ceiling collapse in the Wing Star Factory-which produces running shoes for the Japanese spots brand Asics-was due to dangerous building practices. …
Jill Tucker, technical adviser for Better Factories Cambodia, said her program did not monitor the Wing Star factory “in any capacity,” as the monitoring of footwear factories by the ILO program only started last year. …
Regarding the ILO’s decision not to name factories that flout safety regulations, Ms. Tucker defended the way the program operates.
“We are in the process [of] taking programmatic steps toward publicly releasing some non-compliance information and the name of the factory it is connected to,” she said.
The Better Factories program also does not monitor factory construction standards, although Ms. Tucker said that issues such as electrical wiring, overloading on platforms and pathway obstructions are recorded. …
Dene-Hern Chen and Kaing Menghun,
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/after-factory-collapse-questions-mount-over-ilo-monitoring-24860/
Jarai Man Exiled After He Opposes Land Deal
May 17th, 2013, The Phnom Penh Post, Disputed Land, Forests, Land Tenure, News Source, Social Concerns
Commune authorities in Ratanakkiri province’s O’Yadav district have allegedly banished a local resident for persisting with a lawsuit that accuses them of selling 500 hectares of community forest to two Cambodian developers for $300,000.
Romas Svang, who is a member of the ethnic Jarai minority, filed the suit in 2011. The 45-year-old said most villagers living near the forest received $200 to $300 for allowing developers to use the area. …
Ya Tung commune chief Rocham Vin said 199 families had agreed to sell the land, and received the money.
Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013051765682/National/jarai-man-exiled-after-he-opposes-land-deal.html
Cambodian buses in Saigon to be strictly controlled
May 17th, 2013, Vietnamnet, Business & Commercial Development, Industry, International Relations, Social Concerns, Tourism
In the petition to the National Road Administration, Deputy Director of the HCM City Department of Transportation – Mr. Duong Hong Thanh, reported that at the time the Vietnam-Cambodia agreement on land transportation took effect, only 40 cars of each country were allowed to cross the border. However, the number of vehicles has increased to 450, with a lot of problems. …
Through Cambodian-managed agents and companies in Vietnam, these cars transport Vietnamese passengers for free from Vietnam to Cambodia to gamble. Cambodian buses also transport Vietnamese traveler within the territory of Vietnam. …
Vietnamnet Staff
http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/74337/cambodian-buses-in-saigon-to-be-strictly-control.html
Cambodian factory deaths shine spotlight on conditions
May 16th, 2013, DW, Business & Commercial Development, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Garment Industry, Industry, Infrastructure, International Relations, Labor, Social Concerns
The deaths of at least two Cambodian workers and injuries sustained by 10 colleagues at a shoe factory southwest of Phnom Penh once more shine a light on conditions in the global garment manufacturing industry.
Thursday’s accident at the Wing Star Shoe factory in the Cambodian capital took place when a section of ceiling collapsed onto a group of several dozen workers. The factory, which has 7,000 staff, is contracted to manufacture shoes for Japanese athletics brand ASICS. …
Dave Welsh, the country director at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity, a labour group, visited Wing Star on Thursday and said it looked as though the ceiling at the Taiwanese-owned factory had been “badly overloaded” with materials. …
Garment and shoe manufacturing is now a pillar of Cambodia’s economy: Exports last year, most of which went to the European Union and the United States, brought in 4.6 billion US dollars.
The industry is also the largest formal employer with more than 350,000 workers. …
[Secretary-general of Garment Manufacturers' Association in Cambodia Ken Loo] was quick to separate what happened in Cambodia with the disaster in Bangladesh, and said the ceiling collapse was not indicative of a systemic problem: instead the deaths and injuries at Wing Star, which is a GMAC member, looked more like the consequence of shoddy construction. …
Jill Tucker, the BFC’s chief technical adviser, said although Thursday’s accident was uncommon it had highlighted the need for factories to adhere to building standards too. …
Deutsche Welle Staff
http://www.dw.de/cambodian-factory-deaths-shine-spotlight-on-conditions/a-16819017