Wing Star Shoes

The WRC’s investigation uncovered severe retaliatory actions against workers who formed an independent union. After establishing the union to address grievances, factory management took the following unlawful actions:

• Instigated legal action that led to the arrest and prolonged detention of Chea Chan, the union president, who was jailed for months and sentenced to one year in prison; and
• Additional intimidation tactics against other union members to suppress their organizing efforts.

Mr. Chan was held in prison until August 19, 2024, the same day that the appeal of his conviction was heard in court—at which point, the prosecutor admitted that there was no evidence that the worker leader had committed any crime. Three days later, on August 22, 2024, the court officially overturned its prior verdict and acquitted him.

Wing Star Shoes has now allowed Mr. Chan to return to the factory but has not given him back his job as a mechanic. Moreover, despite having caused him to spend six months in prison on baseless charges, the factory is refusing to pay any compensation for the harm and suffering it caused Mr. Chan and his family through its false accusation.

ASICS and MUJI allowed these actions to proceed unchecked, resulting in a significant violation of workers’ right to freedom of association. For almost a year, despite the gravity of these offenses, ASICS and MUJI continued to fail to take corrective measures or hold the factory accountable, allowing Wing Star Shoes to only partially remedy the violation.

Through the persistence of Chan and CATU, alongside 18 months of sustained engagement between ASICS and the WRC in collaboration with the International Committee of the Labour Lawyers Association of Japan (LLAJ), adequate remedy was secured in October 2025, whereby Chea Chan was finally reinstated to his prior role, where he can freely act as union leader. He received $50,000 in compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, in addition to $3,000 in back wages secured in 2024, and vitally, the union has been officially registered as an affiliate of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions (CATU).

Read More:

• ASICS Allowed Cambodian Supplier Factory to Have Worker Jailed for Months, Sentenced to One Year in Prison in Retaliation for Forming Union – July 2, 2024
• Cambodian Worker Leader Imprisoned on Factory’s False Charges Acquitted—ASICS, MUJI Fail to Require Supplier to Compensate Worker It Wrongly Accused – October 2, 2024
• ASICS and MUJI Fail to Remedy Human Rights Abuses at Cambodian Supplier – September 2, 2025
• Landmark Redress for Falsely Imprisoned Worker Leader Won with Breakthrough Union Recognition for 20,000 Workers – November 7, 2025

In the News:

• “Cambodian Worker at Asics Supplier Receives ‘Historic’ Settlement” Sourcing Journal – November 11, 2025
• “Worker rights victory at ASICS supplier,” Ecotextile News – November 7, 2025
• “Retaliation on Unionists in Southeast Asia Shows ‘Worrying Corporate Backslide on Human Rights’” Sourcing Journal – September 12, 2025
• “Asics Said It Helped Remedy Labor Abuse in Cambodia. Activists Disagree,” Sourcing Journal – October 10, 2024
• “Asics, Muji urged to act on jailed worker,” Ecotextile News – October 4, 2024
• “ASICS shoe supplier in Cambodia accused of labor rights abuses,” Nikkei Asia – August 3, 2024
• “Campaigners accuse ASICS over jailed worker,” Ecotextile News – July 4, 2024