The Cambodia Affair

Earlier this week the story re-incarnated. A large number of factory workers at H&M suppliers in Cambodia fainted at work and more than 200 were hospitalized during a couple of days.

When this last occurred, in late August earlier this year, nobody knew the reason. Local authorities claimed mass hysteria; some believed exhaustion to be the reason.

In mid-September we visited H&M suppliers outside Cambodia’s infamous capital Phnom Penh to evaluate the situation. H&M is recognized for their commitment to global CSR issues but incidents like these blur the reputation.



The field visit is part of Nordea’s overall pro-active engagement policy and since it is not the first time H&M has problems with the supply chain, the current faintings have been taken very seriously by Nordea.

Many of the suppliers are owned by Chinese and the communication between owners, workers and the visiting team seems a bit challenged. But everyone is willing to make an effort to improve.

The factory has about 5000 employees, predominantly young women,  that produce garments like child sweaters to the Western markets. The minimum pay is 61 $ a month. Daily hours are long and the inside temperature can seem unbearable, even to Cambodians. Nobody has direct access to drinking water and the cooling system is not in its prime. So even if the faintings are related to mass hysteria as authority claims, others and more natural reasons can play their part too. Low blood sugar, exhaustion due to long working days and weeks just to mention a few.

Everyone is willing to take part in a solution and the first field visit conducted by Nordea and H&M, has shown results. The Chinese owners definitely want to improve, 80 % of their turnover comes directly from H&M and the global demand for cheap garments. Drinking water, the cooling system and the general working conditions in terms of  breaks etc. are pointed out as a fair beginning.

Nordea and H&M have decided to revisit the factories agian in 2012 to evaluate improvements and next steps in terms of the engagement.