New governance of labour rights: the perspective of Cambodian garment workers’ struggles

Abstract

Globalization has implied the transfer of industrial work to countries of the Global South, where labour rights are seldom effectively protected by legal frameworks. New forms of governance that go beyond state-centred legal regulation are presented as an alternative to fill in 'governance gaps'. This paper analyses 'new governance' from the perspective of Cambodian garment workers and labour movements' struggles. Drawing on the literature on governance and private regulation and research data from Cambodia, it argues that a technocratic approach makes governance initiatives ignore the economic conflict between labour and capital but also the possible political conflict between labour and government. By ignoring trade union rights, power-blind initiatives might end up weakening both the labour movement and democratic accountability, instead of complementing state's regulatory roles. This might serve the overlapping interests of the powerful actors both in Cambodia and internationally.

Imagining new feminist futures: How feminist social movements contest the neoliberalization of feminism in an increasingly corporate‐dominated world

“…We recognize a growing body of critical research revealing the limitations of non‐state governance, including weak enforcement and its tendency to depoliticize and overlook trade union rights (Salmivaara, ). The feminist literature builds upon such critiques.…”

Poverty chains and global capitalism

“…Following the end of the Cold War, and under the leadership of the Cambodian People’s Party, economic development in Cambodia was predicated upon attracting Foreign Direct Investment to stimulate export led growth, based upon cheap labour. The garment industry expanded, from next to nothing in 1994, to around 320 registered (and countless unregistered) factories by 2012 (Arnold, 2013; BFC, 2016; Salmivaara, 2018), with employment in the sector reaching over half a million by 2015 (Human Rights Watch, 2015: 1). Around 90% of workers are rural–urban migrant women (Arnold: 2013, 4).…”

“…The 1997 labour law guarantees a minimum wage designed to ensure workers enjoy a decent standard of living. It defines overtime as work in excess of the normal 8 h working day, limits it to 12 h a week and states that such practices can only be deployed ‘exceptionally’ (Asian Floor Wage, 2012: 51, 65; Salmivaara, 2018: 334). These stipulations are not a reality for most workers in the garment sector.…”

Lights On: How Transparency Increases Compliance in Cambodian Global Value Chains

“…The online results also include information about union compliance, but this article focuses on the first two because union compliance includes a range of issues that are beyond the scope of this article. Salmivaara (2018) elaborated on Cambodian unionization.…”