ARTICLE

Today marks one month since workers from the Labor Rights Supported by Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld (LRSU) began striking and holding daily peaceful demonstrations in central Phnom Penh. Workers continue to strike to oppose the casino’s mass layoff of union members and leaders and improper compensation packages for longtime employees, among other issues.

In the month since the strike began, authorities have arrested 29 union members, leaders and activists. Nine of them have been charged with criminal incitement, of whom eight have been sent to pre-trial detention, including union president Chhim Sithar and union secretary Chhim Sokhorn. Sokhorn was arrested alongside seven other unionists at the LRSU offices on New Year’s Eve 2021, while Sithar was violently arrested by plainclothes officers several days later on 4 January 2022 while she tried to join striking workers in front of the Australian Embassy.

Despite the authorities’ arrests, around 600 workers continue to show up to strike each afternoon to demand the release of their representatives and for NagaWorld to follow the Labour Law. They have rejected daily calls from the Ministry of Labour to accept or negotiate compensation packages, instead calling for the immediate release of their union representatives prior to any negotiations. Authorities have prevented workers from striking at their workplace, in direct contravention to the Labour Law, and have also closed bathrooms near the strike site, claiming falsely they are ‘out of order’, in an attempt to dissuade workers from striking.

On 4 January 2022, 119 CSOs, communities and unions called for the immediate and unconditional release of all arrested unionists and for the government to find a solution to workers’ demands. On 7 January 2022, the director-general of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) sent a letter to Prime Minister Hun Sen urging him to ensure the immediate release of imprisoned unionists and dropping of criminal charges against the activists.

The eight currently imprisoned unionists are:
- Chhim Sokhorn
- Chim Sithar
- Hay Sopheap
- Kleang Soben
- Ry Sovandy
- Sok Narith
- Sun Sreypich
- Touch Sereymeas

Each day, the union and their supporters are calling for their release through social media posts. As of today, the eight have spent 19 days behind bars.

MP3 format: Listen to audio version in Khmer