Factory workers in Cambodia earn less than £1 an hour — BBC Sport
Workers at two garment factories in Cambodia, where official replica football shirts for leading clubs are made, receive base pay of less than £1 an hour. This was reported by BBC Sport, which traced production to the Bowker Garment Factory and Trax Apparel facilities near Phnom Penh.
Photographs from the factories show the production of kits for Arsenal, Celtic, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Benfica and Aston Villa. Bowker employs about 3,400 people, mostly women, while about 3,200 people work at Trax Apparel, located approximately 16 kilometres from Bowker.
Wages and production targets
According to five payslips seen by BBC Sport, workers' base monthly wages range from $210 to $220, or £158–166. Workers usually have six eight-hour shifts a week. In three documents, total monthly earnings, including overtime and allowances, were about $300, or £226.
Workers interviewed said they struggle to cover housing, food and utility costs. They also reported group production targets of between 300 and 700 items per day. One Trax Apparel worker noted that the cost of one shirt for a buyer can exceed a worker's two-week wage.
Trax Apparel said its workers' average monthly earnings this year range from $305 to $342. Bowker Garment Factory did not respond to BBC Sport's request.
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Complaints about heat and safety
Workers at both facilities reported high temperatures in production areas, verbal abuse for failing to meet targets and electrical safety problems. In one photograph from Bowker, a thermometer shows 35.2°C at humidity of 57.6%. One worker said they had suffered electric shocks twice because of an exposed wire.
Adidas does not own these factories, but both are its key suppliers and must comply with the company's standards. The sportswear manufacturer said temperature-control measures are in place at both facilities and that its rules do not permit harassment. Adidas also said it found no electricity-related incidents in Bowker's records.
Trax Apparel acknowledged periods of elevated temperatures, saying cooling systems operate at the factory. The company also insists that its approach is not based on forced fulfilment of production targets.
Kit prices are rising
According to BBC Sport, the average price of an adult replica Premier League club shirt has risen by 50.7% over the past ten years. A standard Arsenal home shirt sells for £85, while a version equivalent to the players' kit costs up to £120. None of the clubs named in the investigation responded to a request for comment.
In a 2024 report, the International Labour Organization stated that 69% of factories in Cambodia had problems with heat and 84% had problems with worker protection.
