Response from Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing Co.
7 February 2014
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Sabrina Garment to respond to:
- “Workers’ Rights are Human Rights – Policy Brief: The Garment Industry in Cambodia”, Cambodia Center for Human Rights, Jan 2014 http://cchrcambodia.org/admin/media/analysis/analysis/english/CCHR_Policy%20Brief%20on%20Garment%20Industry_(January%202014)_eng.pdf
Sabrina Garment Manufacturing responded with the following:
Thank you for the opportunity to respond. There are a number of inaccuracies in the information presented about Sabrina (Cambodia) Garment Manufacturing Co. in the report produced by the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights that we would like to correct.
Sabrina pays above the minimum wage and did so before the increase mandated by the Government on 1 May 2013 and before the strike.
Sabrina has at all times complied with all elements of the applicable collective bargaining agreement. At no time has Sabrina ever failed to uphold our obligations.
At the Kampong Speu factory, the Coalition of Cambodian Apparel Workers Democratic Union (CCAWDU) has Majority Representative Status (MRS). As the report says, most workers at the factory belong to CCAWDU. The MRS union in each factory is the one that has the right to negotiate benefits on behalf of all the employees.
In October 2012, all the trade unions, including Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) and CCAWDU, signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to respect the MRS. Requests for additional benefits made by FTU representatives for workers at the Sabrina factory at Kampong Speu are not consistent with this MOU.
On 11 June 2013, 66 employees only were dismissed from the factory in Kampong Speu following the violence in the factory grounds. Sabrina regretted having to take this action but felt strongly that threats to our workers’ safety, property damage, and violence cannot be ignored. Under Cambodian Labor Law Article 83, violence against other workers or the employer is considered a serious offence and workers can be dismissed. This was the first time in the 13-year operation of the factory that Sabrina had dismissed workers for violent behaviour.
The report says that Sabrina is suing FTUWK. This is not the case. Sabrina did not take any legal action against the people who were arrested or the union. As part of our evidence to the court we included a list of the property damaged when the protesters broke into the factory and asked the court to consider the accused being asked to make reparations. We withdrew the request for reparations in June 2013.
In July 2013, Sabrina engaged Industriall Global Union (http://www.industriall-union.org/home) and Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) to mediate a solution to the situation. This process was successful and since then the factory has operated smoothly and without issue.
You should also know that Sabrina’s Kampong Speu factory is part of Better Factories Cambodia. Better Factories Cambodia is managed by the International Labour Organization and supported by the Royal Government of Cambodia, GMAC and unions.