Cambodia has been plagued by the problem of child for years. A new agreement between the International Labor Organization’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) and the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) is the latest effort to eradicate child labor in Cambodia’s garment industry.

Under the plan, workers under the age of 15 will be identified, offered access to suitable vocational training institutes and paid the equivalent of their average monthly factory pay until they reach 15. Factories will get financial support from GMAC to support age confirmation and remediation costs. The Cambodian government has reaffirmed its commitment to end child labor across all sectors from 16.5 per cent in 1999 to 8 per cent in 2015, and eliminate the worst forms of child labor, like performing hazardous work, completely by 2016.

GMAC has been working with BFC on a project to monitor factories and help them maintain improvements for the last 14 years to establish a zero tolerance policy toward child labor.

ILO Better Factories Cambodia uses a number of means to detect workers below 15 years of age. It crosschecks information obtained from documents and interviews suspected workers prior to determining whether or not they are underage. If they are confirmed to be at least 18 years old, no further investigations are undertaken. If age-verifying documents appear unreliable, or do not match the information obtained through the worker interview, monitors may undertake an in-depth investigation at the suspected underage worker’s birthplace.