In another photograph taken inside Bowker, a thermometer shows 35.2C and humidity of 57.6%.
“The heat stress is really taking a toll on our health,” said an employee on the ironing line.
Workers at both factories described pressure to meet group production targets of between 300 and 700 items a day.
“Just think about that,” they added. “If one shirt sells for $120 (£90) in the store, how much are they pulling in from 600 of them? They make a ton of money but give almost nothing to the workers.”
Others described verbal abuse when targets were missed.
“When we can’t complete the quota they scold and yell at us and tell us to resign,” said a third worker at Bowker.
The same employee said they received two electric shocks from an exposed wire.
“I tried to report it multiple times, but they only took action after the second time I got shocked,” they said.
Adidas told us both factories had “heat-management measures”, that its standards “do not permit any form of harassment”, and that “no electrical-related accidents” had been found in Bowker’s records.
Trax acknowledged “periods of elevated temperature” but said cooling systems were in place and insisted its approach “is not based on enforcing output targets”.
Such concerns are widespread across Cambodia’s garment industry, with a 2024 International Labour Organization report, external finding 69% of factories had issues with heat and 84% with worker protection.
