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Figure 7.18: Percentage of workers who received Covid-19 support from various sources
Access To Covid-19 Related Relief Efforts
76% of garment workers reported that they were able to access some form of relief/ support during the Covid-19 crisis.
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• 60% of the workers reported that they received the wage support of 70 USD for laid-off workers from the government and suppliers for at least a single month in 2020 (Figure 7.18). However, most workers stated that this amount was grossly inadequate to meet even basic expenses including food, rent, education and healthcare for a month.
• Around 20% of the workers received food support from the government, suppliers and trade unions each.
• Formal support for healthcare was limited from both the government and suppliers, but 12% of the workers reported that they were supported by trade unions in this regard.
Figure 7.18: Percentage of workers who received Covid-19 support from various sources 4.16
60
58% 59%
wo rk er s entage of rc Pe 50
40
30
20
10
0
22%
11%
Monetary support 19% 20% 21%
3%
Food 12%
5% 3% 3%
Healthcare
Factory Government NGO/Charity Trade Union
Source: Primary data, n=294
Cambodia’s first major outbreak of Covid-19 began in February, 2021.11 By April 2021, the spike in cases resulted in strict government-imposed lockdown restrictions. This forced garment factories across the country to shut down, leaving the vast majority of garment workers without work. Unlike 2020, workers no longer received the guaranteed 70 USD per month when they were laid off. Rather, the GMAC and the Ministry of Labour urged factory owners to support workers with whatever aid was possible. Unemployment benefits much lower than the 70 USD in 2020 were announced for a small fraction of workers, that is, 5,262 workers in 29 selected factories across garment and tourism sectors.
In May 2021, factories were allowed to reopen in the less-restricted zones of the country, but factories in the red and orange zones remained closed. In the less-restricted yellow zones, factories were allowed to open with partial capacity, leading to layoffs without wages. Several workers who lived in red zones were not allowed to travel back to resume work.
Hunger, inability to pay rent, and mounting microfinance debt with little relaxation of repayment rules have severely intensified the humanitarian crisis facing Cambodian garment workers since the pandemic struck in 2020. Workers received some relief in the form of food assistance and relaxation of rent payments, but unions report that this is grossly inadequate in the face of employment and wage theft for the second consecutive year.
GMAC reported that brands remained insensitive to the lockdown restrictions imposed by the government, providing little leeway to Cambodian suppliers in terms of order fulfilment. The majority of factories, especially those in red zones, were not able to fulfil the orders placed by brands. Without delivery of finished orders within strict deadlines, Cambodian suppliers have gone without payment for existing orders and lost out on future orders, leaving them with huge financial losses. The consequences of these losses fall on workers in the form of greater wage theft, forcing them to incur even greater debt to survive.
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2 Yamagata, T. (2006). The garment industry in Cambodia: Its role in poverty reduction through export-oriented development. Cambodian Economic Review. 81-136.
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9 Kimmarita, L. (2020, April). Temporarily laid-off workers to get just $70. Cambodia. Retrieved from https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/temporarily-laid-workers-getjust-70
10 Medina, A. F. (2020, May 7). More Incentives, Obligations Announced for Businesses in Cambodia in Tourism, Garment Industries. Retrieved from ASEAN Briefing: https://www. aseanbriefing.com/news/incentives-obligations-announced-businesses-cambodia-tourismgarment-industries/
11 Chorn , A., & Jonathan, S. (2021, May 19). COVID-19 comes to Cambodia. Cambodia. Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/05/19/covid-19comes-to-cambodia/
