By Clare Baldwin and Katherine Masters PHNOM PENH/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Walmart and Centric Brands are investigating their supply chains in Cambodia ...
Discover Why The Armview is Halifax's Best Family Friendly Patio | SaltWirePHNOM PENH/NEW YORK - Walmart and Centric Brands are investigating their supply chains in Cambodia over allegations that inmates at the country's largest women's prison were illegally employed to produce garments for export, following questions posed by Reuters and inquiries from a U.S. industry group about labour practices there.
Cambodian Ministry of Commerce Secretary of State Sok Sopheak, who chaired an inter-ministerial committee investigating AAFA's allegations, told Reuters that Cambodia had fined three local companies $50,000 each and suspended their export licenses for three months through July 31 for using CC2 inmates to sew hotel slippers for export to the European Union and Japan. The value of the slippers exported last year was about $190,000, he said.
Four people familiar with the matter, including two former CC2 inmates, said other items produced in the prison appeared to be linked to Walmart and Centric Brands, the licensing partner for IZOD and other labels including Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Under Armour. Both Walmart and Centric source goods from Cambodia.
"We find the allegations very concerning," a Walmart spokesperson said in early June."Forced labor of any kind is abhorrent, and we believe all people should be treated with dignity and not be exploited." The spokesperson said the investigation was ongoing as of mid-August. Authentic Brands Group, which owns the IZOD brand, and BFC said they took forced-labour allegations seriously.
The former inmates said they worked standard hours and made shirts, trousers, hotel slippers and shopping bags. Refusing to work often meant being moved to a different cell or forced to kneel, though some prisoners avoided the factories by paying prison guards, they said. Three women said they did not have employment contracts, and that guards simply took their names before they began working in the prison factories.
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