Cambodia

Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), was arrested at his home in July 2020 after claiming that the demarcation of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam had stripped several farmers of their land. He was charged with “incitement to commit a felony or cause social unrest”. On 18 August 2021, Rong Chhun, the president of the Cambodian Confederation of Unions (CCU), was sentenced to two years in prison, the maximum sentence for this offence, as well as a fine of two million riels (US$490).

Rong Chhun and Sar Kanika and Ton Nimol, two other labour fellow labour rights advocates, were freed on appeal on 11 November 2021. The Phnom Penh Appeals Court dropped the remainder of the sentences against them, but they all remained on probation and faced restrictions related to travel and other activities for three years.

The workers at NagaWorld hotel and casino complex in Cambodia had been on strike since 18 December 2021 in protest at the unfair dismissal of 365 workers. Over 1,000 workers joined the strike, which took the form of peaceful sit-ins outside the company premises. The LRSU union made every effort to negotiate a solution, but management refused to talk and even failed to attend a mediation session convened by the Ministry of Labour.

On 31 December 2021, police raided the LRSU’s office, confiscating union documents, computers and mobile phones. Nine people were arrested. A further seventeen arrests were made on 3 January 2022 followed by three more on 4 January, including the arrest of the LRSU president, Sithar Chhim, who was forcibly dragged from the picket line and into a police car.

By February 2022, eight of those arrested remained in detention, namely the union chair, Sithar Chhim; union secretary Chhim Sokhorn; union advisor Sok Narith, and union activists Ry Sovandy, Sun Sreypich, Hai Sopheap, Klaing Soben, Touch Sereymeas. They were denied pre-trial release and said they did not have enough water and were not allowed to contact their families. They were charged with incitement, which carries a sentence of up to five years in prison. In March 2022, they were finally released from jail on bail.

In 2022, the Cambodian authorities continued to prevent union registration for arbitrary reasons or for extremely minor technical errors. In one case, a union submitted its application to the Ministry of Labour on 25 December 2020 and included all ten types of documents required by law. In February 2021, local union leaders were called by the ministry for the first time to correct spelling mistakes on the cover letter and in the profile of union leaders. Over two months later, on 7 May 2021, local union leaders were called a second time to correct the size of the photos of the union leaders from (3x4) to (4x6) and resubmit them once again. As of 2022, the union was still not registered, after having expended considerable time and resources to submit the application.

The NagaWorld Hotel and Casino complex in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, has consistently denied their workers the right to union representation. For more than two decades, management has refused to fully recognise the Union of Khmer Employees of Naga World (LRSU).