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For Kong Chantha, a team manager at one of the textile factories in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, each day is eternal. Shifts of up to 12 hours, without distinguishing between Sundays and Wednesdays, sewing garments that will end up hanging in some of the main international chains in the West such as H&M, GAP, Mark and Spencer, Adidas or Armani. And without possible excuses to stop sewing for even a second, at breakneck speed and cowering in front of her machine, at the risk of being fired. "A worker from my team wanted to leave early. We have to work overtime until 9pm every day, but she had severe menstrual pain and asked to work overtime only until 6pm. They yelled at her and they told him that seven dollars would be deducted from his salary and that his contract would not be renewed. So he did not leave, and continued working."

His testimony is part of the broad complaint in the form of a report prepared by Human Rights Watch and presented a few hours ago in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Throughout 140 pages, 'Work faster or leave: Violation of labor rights in the Cambodian textile sector' recounts the almost slave-like working conditions applied by some factories -frequently the smallest ones, which in turn supply the exporting companies hired by large firms - where labor rights are almost non-existent, special pressure is applied to pregnant women and unpaid overtime is mandatory in many of them. If they refuse, the worker is exposed to being fired, suffering salary deductions or suffering a punitive transfer. Child labor cases have also been documented in at least 11 of the factories investigated.

It is estimated that of the 700,000 workers employed by the textile industry in Cambodia - one of its large economic sectors, with 1,200 factories throughout the country - 90% are women. And one of the big risks they run is getting pregnant, since bosses don't usually tolerate absences due to medical visits, sick leave or any other type of delay in production. "I can only produce four or five batches [one batch equals a dozen garments] a day and I have to go to the toilet often," a pregnant woman, identified as Preap Vanna, told HRW in December 2013. "The supervisors call me to their office and they yell at me: 'If you're pregnant and can't work you should quit.' Almost every day they call me into their office. They did that today too."

The pressure leads, in some extremes, to some bosses to limit visits to the bathroom and breaks to drink water or eat in order to meet the production targets set. Workers from 35 of the companies investigated denounced anti-union practices, such as the dismissal or intimidation of leaders or shorter-term contracts for male workers, who are considered more likely to organize unions.

Many of the small factories investigated tend to use short-term contracts with the aim of pushing their employees to the maximum, renouncing maternity or sick leave or any other labor compensation, and blackmailing their employees with recurring threats of dismissal . "[The supervisor told me:] 'You must learn to use that machine faster. Otherwise, you can leave the factory. Do you understand what I'm saying?' And then he would throw the materials that we had to sew on the machine or directly on top of us, banging on the table and coming up to yell at us inches from our faces," said Phan Sarim, a Phnom Penh factory worker, quoted in the report.

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This is not the first time that conditions of semi-slavery in Cambodian factories have been denounced, and it is striking the promises and reforms made on previous occasions by the Hun Sen regime -in power for decades- to improve a situation that has barely changed for the better. "Since the protests to demand an increase in the minimum wage carried out by workers in December 2013, the Ministry of Labor has established cumbersome union registration procedures, which makes it difficult for them to obtain authorization," the report denounced.

According to HRW, the labor inspection mechanisms created last year by the Ministry of Labor are still not credible and suspicions of corruption against its officials overshadow any measure. It is shocking that out of 1,000 inspections of textile factories between January 2009 and December 2013, only 10 fines were imposed. Above all, after the conclusions of Better Factories Cambodia (BFC), an external body that monitors the working conditions of factories with export licences, according to which 94% of the factories examined between May 2013 and April 2014 violate the regulation of overtime. HRW emphasizes that BFC can only examine exporting factories and not small companies that sometimes supply the former to meet their production quotas.

Labor protests at the end of 2013, which brought tens of thousands of workers to the streets and ended up being repressed by the regime, led to a wage increase that employers force their own employees to pay through more hours of work . "The production quota that they set us [in the sewing sector] was 80 [garments] per hour. But when the minimum wage was increased, they raised it to 90. If we don't achieve it, they yell at us furiously. They tell us that we work slowly. That we have to work overtime. And we can't say no. We are like slaves, not workers. Even if we go to the toilet, they call us back. We can't even go to the bathroom," denounces one of the workers interviewed for The report.

HRW not only demands measures from Cambodia to improve this situation: it also denounces the role of the big brands that subcontract their garments in the Asian country. "The Cambodian government should take urgent steps to reverse the poor enforcement of its labor laws and protect workers from abuse," said Aruna Kashyap, women's rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Of the 200 international companies that entrust their textile production to Cambodia, Kashyap demands that they take responsibility. "These are well-known global brands. They have a privileged position and can and must do more to ensure that their contracts with textile factories contribute to the fact that labor rights are not violated."