Better Factories Cambodia

In the 1990s the international community started the economic and political liberalization of Cambodia. Cambodia’s garment industry was put in a favoured position to spur economic growth. In 1995 the US signed a bilateral agreement with the Cambodian government that gave Cambodian exports increased access to the US market if labour conditions would improve. Improvement of compliance with labour standards was monitored by the ILO. Good labour standards soon became the cornerstone of Cambodia’s garment industry. The agreement phased out in 2005 but the monitoring program that monitored labour conditions was kept in place and named Better Factories Cambodia. BFC has undoubtedly contributed to the improvement of labour conditions in the Cambodian garment industry. However, workers claim that their biggest issues are currently not effectively addressed by BFC. This research aims to find out why BFC is unable to address their issues effectively. Tripartism is at the core of the BFC program. Six enabling conditions need to be met in order for tripartism to function well: freedom of association, democratic foundations, legitimacy, political will and commitment, technical competence and capacity to deliver. Through conducting literature research and interviews this research found out that these six enabling conditions are not being met currently. The main reason for why these conditions have not been met is that it is not in the interest of the government and the national employers’ organization to meet these conditions. This means that workers’ issues are not effectively addressed because BFC has little to no influence on issues that are not prioritized by the government and employers. The research concludes that the success of BFC is completely dependent on tripartism, and with that on the government and employers.