ABSTRACT

Over the last two decades third-party monitoring initiatives have emerged to improve working conditions in factories. These programs have had mixed results. In Cambodia, the first country to implement the International Labour Organization’s Better Work programme, compliance with some labour standards has improved. Yet programme reports also show compliance regression in the area of freedom of association and non-discrimination. This chapter considers whether such programmes strengthen state and brand legitimacy without corresponding rights gains for workers. It argues that as a complementary and parallel mechanism to state legislative enforcement, third-party monitoring alone runs the risk of eroding worker agency and substantive labour rights reform in the long term.