Factory: PCCS Garment
Key Buyers: adidas, Gap, Puma
Last Updated: 2008
Case Summary
The WRC initiated the assessment of PCCS Garment in response to worker complaints alleging violations in the area of occupational health and safety, as well as the excessive use of short-term labor contracts. On this latter issue, the WRC investigation found that PCCS Garment had begun in 2003 to hire all new production employees on temporary contracts of two or three months’ duration. Upon expiration of the contracts, workers were instructed to take leave from the factory for several days, and upon their return, were issued new short-term contracts along with new employee identification numbers. This practice, which amounts to the misclassification of large numbers of permanent production employees as short-term contract laborers, has the effect of denying these workers many of the rights and benefits to which they are entitled under Cambodian law and university codes of conduct. Such misuse of contract labor arrangements is becoming increasingly common in many apparel-exporting countries and is of particular concern to labor rights monitors.
The assessment also identified violations in the areas of health and safety, harassment and abuse, and legally mandated benefits. PCCS Garment has made substantial progress in each of these areas. Most notably, on the issue of short-term contracts, the factory agreed last year to cease the practice of using these temporary contracts for permanent production workers. The factory has since converted the majority of short-term contracts to regular employment contracts, which has resulted in meaningful improvements in wages, benefits, and employment security for the roughly 1,000 workers who had been misclassified as contract laborers. The factory has also made significant improvements on the issues of health and safety identified by the assessment and has taken steps to curb verbal abuse by supervisors.
Read More:
- WRC Findings, Recommendations, and Status Report – January 15, 2008
- WRC Factory Assessment Update – December 19, 2006
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