Name of Factory

King’s Land Garment Cambodia Company

What they produce

Garments, casual women's and men's apparel, children’s clothing, women’s underwear

Who the factory produces for

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc and its supplier Saramax (including brands Clockwise and Highland Outfitters); Allura Importers Inc.; Carter’s Watch the Wear

Address

Kings Land Garment Cambodia Co., Ltd.
No. 538 National Road 2
Prektalong Village
Chakangre Leu commune
Meanchey District
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
kingsland@online.com.kh

Number of workers

650 workers currently, there were as many as 1,000 workers in 2006

Factory Info

The King’s Land factory has been in operation for more than 10 years. King’s Land is owned by the Gold Ocean Co. Ltd. in Hong Kong. Gold Ocean owns three other factories in Cambodia.

The current Managing Director of Gold Ocean is Mr. Leon Hsu who in lives in Hong Kong.

Mr. Leon Hsu
Managing Director
Gold Ocean Company Ltd
Unit 1027-28 Pacific Trade Centre
2 Kai Hing Road, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
E- mail : info@goldocean.com.hk
Tel: (852) 27958003

Summary of Problems at the Factory

• Verbal abuse of workers by management
• Minimum wage violations
• Discrimination against union members
• Unsanitary bathroom facilities
• Workers not granted sick leave as required by Cambodian law

Union Information

Garment Workers Democratic Union of King’s Land Garment Co., Ltd (known as C.CAWDU) was formed in May 24, 2007. C.CAWDU has 450 members at the factory. There is also a company controlled “yellow” union at the factory but this union only has a handful of members.

Communication with Buyers

Clean Clothes Campaign, Maquila Solidarity Network, SweatFree Communities, Asian Transnational Companies Network, and International Textile and Garment Workers Unions, and International Trade Union Confederation all wrote letters to Wal-Mart in February 2008. Maquila Solidarity Network has had several phone conversations with Wal-Mart and Saramax between March and April 2008.

Average rate of pay

The minimum wage in Cambodia is about $50 USD a month. However, the daily pay can fluctuate between $1.08 USD and $2.16 USD. According to the pay stubs of Ms. Phal Savin, she was paid more than $50 USD only once over a ten month period.

Violence Towards Workers

On February 6, 2008, C.CAWDU was maintaining their strike in front of the Kingsland factory until about 11AM that day. At 3:00 PM on the same day, all the workers came to the factory to receive their salary for January. While the workers were waiting for the their wages to be paid in front of the factory, the factory security guard told Mr. Ly Bunyin (factory union president) that the workers needed to wait so all the workers continued to wait for the salary until 4:30 PM. At that time the village police came and argued with workers about some public security issues. After that, a group of police also came and asked the workers the way to get inside the factory worker was agreed but when at that time police used ID phone to beat worker especially women worker was heavy beat up by the police. The police also allowed the cars of company Director(Ly YangLe), Accountant and Administrator (Tang Chanda and Tang Mei) to crush the workers while they were waiting outside of the factory. Because of this, ten workers were injured and five more were serious. Physical harm included five leg injuries and one broken hand.

C.CAWDU denounces this and all violence against workers and expects the perpetrators to be held accountable for the injured workers medical bills and loss of pay while recovering from the injuries.

King’s Land Legal Violations

• Article 41 of Cambodian Constitution (freedom of association).
• Article 74 of Cambodian Labor Law (compliance of contract duration procedures)
• Article 83 of Labor Law and Cambodian Constitution (serious misconduct)
• Conventions 87 and 98 of ILO and Prakas no. 305 MOSALVY (right to collectively negotiate)
• Article 104 of the Labor Law and the notification no.017 (base wage calculation)
• Article 106 of the Cambodian labor law and conventions no.100 and no.111 of ILO (right to equal remuneration with men and to equality of treatment in respect to work of equal value)
• Article 115 and 182 of the labor law ( wages paying and women’s affairs)
• Article 166 of the Cambodian Labor Law (annual leave)
• Articles 12, 279, 280 of Cambodian Labor Law (discrimination against and interfering in union affairs)
• Parkas no.052 (health and hygiene)
• Company agreement (reimbursement for ID cards)
• Labor Laws concerning the rights and freedoms of union affiliation, right to have check-off system through a company, right to access information and to broadcast, right to negotiate on individual and collective disputes or other labor linked matters.
• National law and international conventions on labor to promote good working conditions.
• Arbitration Council awards on Dec 12, 2007, agreements on Oct 24, 27 and 30 and November 16, 2007 produced in the presence of the arbitration panels.
• Buyer’s code of conduct (Carter’s Watch the Wear, Wal-Mart and others)