There's nothing quite like the glamour of the fashion industry. The big brands make a statement heard the world over and today in Phnom Penh, those who actually manufacture the garments are making their voices heard.
ATH THORN, UNION LEADER (Translation): If there's a blockade or a crackdown, we won't fight back. We won't use violence, we'll protest peacefully. We would rather be kicked and beaten and not fight back.
These workers want a pay rise, a meal allowance and the end of armed guards inside their factory. It's another round in the tough fight for better wages and conditions.
ATH THORN, (Translation): The company sacked 720 workers and suspended more than 5000.
Ath Thorn is a union leader and he's got no time for the boss.
ATH THORN (Translation): What is obvious in this situation is that he wants to remove the union from the factory.
But scenes like these don't wash with the employers in this cutthroat industry.
KEN LOO, SECRETARY GENERAL, GARMENT MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION: Our objective is to come to Cambodia and make money. If foreign investors are unable to make a profit, if foreign investors start losing money, we leave - we'll go to another country.
Garment manufacturing is Cambodia's largest export industry. It employs 400,000 workers, mostly women. As the factories empty each afternoon, the workers are trucked off like cattle. I wanted to see for myself what conditions were like inside the factory gates. And Ken Loo was the man to ask for permission.
REPORTER: Take me in.
KEN LOO: I would like to. I can't.
REPORTER: Take me in, Ken. Take me in.
KEN LOO: I can't. I cannot.
REPORTER: But if you got to know me or Dateline a bit better, would there be a possibility of showing us a factory?
KEN LOO: Yes, yes.
REPORTER: Could you give me a bit of a guarantee on that?
KEN LOO: Yes.
There's no shortage of factories around Phnom Penh but Ken Loo was reluctant. He said one BBC investigation had cost a company $18 million in lost sales.
KEN LOO: We would rather have zero mention, than take the chance of having a negative report.
With no help from the manufacturers, I decide to try for myself.
REPORTER: Hello. Can I come in?
MAN: No. No.
REPORTER: Can I come in?
MAN 2: No. No. No.
REPORTER: Can I come in? No, can't come in.
For two weeks I've been trying to get inside a factory like this. Doesn't matter what factory I try, they won't let me in.
REPORTER: Can I come and see the boss? OK.
With no factory access, I've come here to meet one of the workers as she returns home. We'll call her Bopha. She doesn't want her real name used, fearing reprisal from her employer. Like many, she left rural poverty for the chance of a steady income in the capital.
BOPHA (Translation): In general, in my village, people are quite poor. They let me come here to work so I could send money home and also support myself and my child.
She lives in this tiny room and has been a garment worker for nine years. Her son stays back in her village.
BOPHA (Translation): When I first came here I missed my children very much and I cried myself to sleep. I cried myself to sleep every night. And inside this house I feel really confined because the rooms are so small.
In fact, it's so confined in here, a lot of the food preparation occurs outside. This garment industry veteran says she is paying a high price for her job.
BOPHA (Translation): There have been changes in our health - we didn't used to get sick much, now we get sick a lot. My health is deteriorating - I want to quit but there are no jobs back home.
INTERPRETER (Translation): Why do you get sick a lot?
BOPHA (Translation): Maybe because of chemicals in the fabric, another reason is we don't have enough to eat.
Whether it's poor nutrition or poor conditions, Cambodia has an epidemic of workers fainting on the job.
ATH THORN (Translation): In 2011 nearly 2000 workers fainted in the factory. In 2012, it was over 2000. In 2013, 500 or 600. So I think that the issues of health and wages are the biggest problems.
Given the reluctance of the manufacturers to let me film a factory, it's ironic that the union supplied me with this footage. Workers toil for a minimum wage of $80 US a month. That's $20 for a 6-day week. Working overtime boosts Bopha's pay but she says life is tough.
REPORTER: Is that enough money to live on?
BOPHA (Translation): No, it's not enough. I have to be careful about what I spend each day.
ATH THORN (Translation): They don't have enough to eat and they eat food which is not nutritious. So their salary is too low and it is very hard for them to live a decent life.
KEN LOO: Of course, everybody wants more. But it is surely not the situation that NGOs and unions want to describe - that the workers do not have enough money to eat properly - that is nonsense. So, if on a daily basis we have half a million workers willingly wake up without anybody flogging them, get dressed, go to work, they must be earning enough to eat.
Keeping body and soul together on a few dollars a day isn't easy, especially when there's a family to feed. But the employers say these strikes and sit-ins aren't the way to improve the situation.
KEN LOO: Very often the workers are misled, misled by union leaders making use of the workers for their own personal benefit. And very, very often they have the wrong impression that factories will never leave Cambodia. We are not NGOs. We are not development partners. We don't come to Cambodia to help you. We come to Cambodia to make a profit.
This drive for profit at all costs has come under renewed scrutiny, following the shopping centre collapse in Bangladesh. Over 1,100 garment workers perished there. Cambodia has also seen tragedy, but on a much smaller scale.
PATIENT (Translation): I don't know what happened, suddenly the roof collapsed.
The shoe factory collapse killed three. 23 people were injured in another collapse and the company's hoping a few dollars will ease the pain.
WOMAN (Translation): This is the company's generosity. Any problems, just call us.
ATH THORN (Translation): You closed all the streets so we could not ask for justice, women workers were thrown out of their rented houses - they had no money to pay their rent.
As the protests continue, sometimes they're put down with lethal force. Live ammunition was used here and one person was killed. And woe be tide any demonstrator caught by police. Despite this chaos, there are also some powerful forces backing the workers. The International Labour Organisation operates here and some of the employers and big brands support improved work conditions. This training session is run by the ILO for workplace supervisors.
MAN: Here they learn the theory in class but they need to apply in the workplace.
It's about managing staff, not humiliating them.
TEACHER (Translation): Can emotionally vulnerable people still perform after they have been humiliated like that? They may want to resign or even hang themselves.
The ILO also monitors factories and promotes better working conditions. But many subcontractors undermine this path. With the bosses unwilling to let me in, I'm waiting outside this factory to meet Sinoun. She travels home each day to this market, to buy food for dinner. She has received ILO training and unlike Bopha, who I met earlier, her employer seems sympathetic.
SINOUN (Translation): It is a good day, working conditions are good and it is easy to get leave. There is a union, many workers have been there for years. The bosses are understanding, which makes it easy for us.
With no children to support, she says she has no major concerns at work. If there's a model for dealing with workers with dignity, Sinoun may be it.
INTERPRETER (Translation): Is your salary sufficient?
SINOUN (Translation): It is enough because I do not send money home, I don't have much money to spend but my life is better than before, about 50% better than it was before.
As the models and celebrities strut their stuff, it seems a world away from Phnom Penh, but there's no shortage of welfare either, or big brands. As I toured these upmarket boutiques, I couldn't help thinking about Sinoun and Bopha, how they lived and their struggle for a better life.
ANJALI RAO: Food for thought, no pun intended. Next time you purchase a garment with Made in Cambodia on the label.
Reporter/Camera
DAVID BRILL
Producer
GEOFF PARISH
Editor
NICK O'BRIEN
Fixers
SUY SE
CHEANG SOKHA
Researcher
MELANIE MORRISON
Translations/Subtitling
SARETH SOUK
Original Music Composed by
VICKI HANSEN