• Society

More NagaWorld Strikers Arrested

• By Teng Yalirozy
• March 11, 2022 7:09 PM

Labor advocate complains of violent scenes

PHNOM PENH--About 160 NagaWorld strikers were dragged away violently and sent to a quarantine center on March 11, a labor advocate says.

Khun Tharo, of rights group CENTRAL, said seven buses took the strikers to the Prek Pnov Quarantine center. They were violently arrested and forced into the buses, he said, adding that one female journalist at the site was also assaulted.

“We don’t have the exact number of the arrested strikers at hand, but our team is working on it,” he said.

Van Rina, one of the workers sent to quarantine, said the authorities arrested about 128 strikers but 40 people on two buses had not been allowed to get off, while some of them had serious travel sickness.

“We have already been taken to the center, so why don’t they let us off the buses and let us use the bathroom,” she said, adding that the authorities told them they were only following orders.

Rina said that the authorities kept arresting strikers whenever they were out on the strike. She did not understand why the authorities had to be so violent and cruel to them, she added.

The Labor Ministry on March 10 urged the strikers to stop protesting to the detriment of their interests, saying the ministry would continue to work together to address their concerns.

A letter issued by the ministry said the dispute was caused by the COVID-19 crisis, when 1,621 out of 8,371 NagaWorld employees had to be laid off. The reduction plan has since April 2021 been opposed by employees demanding reinstatement of 373 union members.

Eight other conditions were also stated, such as stopping the exploitation of interns by accepting them as full-time employees, providing legal compensation to deregistered employees, and reviewing the removal of casino managers.

The ministry said it had mediated the dispute for the ninth time but it had not been resolved so far.

“Once again, the ministry calls on the strikers who are the former employees and the employees of NagaWorld who are absent from the workplace to participate in the strike to stop any wrongdoing that could harm their legitimate interests,” the ministry said.

The ministry said it would continue to cooperate with relevant institutions to address the concerns of the strikers and take into account the legitimate rights of investors.

However, Rina said she and her fellow strikers could not halt the strike until the company gave them a suitable solution and responses to their demands, and the government released the 11 jailed union leaders.

“Our union leaders are in jail, and we are continuously arrested,” she said. “If there is no solution, the strike will continue. The authorities should withdraw themselves and help us, the citizen, not the private company who exploits our labor.”

Around 1,000 NagaWorld employees have been on strike since December, demanding the reinstatement of more than 360 laid-off employees. Eleven of their activists and union leaders are being held in jail on charges of inciting serious social unrest and violation of measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Interior Minister Sar Kheng on March 9 organized a high-level meeting between senior officials from the police, courts and ministries to discuss the dispute but nothing fruitful has resulted yet.

However, on March 10, the Phnom Penh Court of Appeal dismissed a plea for bail for eight detained union members and leaders of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld.

During the 49th session of the Human Rights Council on March 9, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Cambodian authorities were using COVID-19 restriction to further undermine democratic and civil space, such as by breaking a legitimate strike by casino workers.

However, An Sokkhoeurn, Cambodia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said a Cambodian court had declared in December in that the strike was illegal.

The US State Department and the German Embassy in Cambodia have called on all parties to the dispute to enter into peaceful negotiations and drop charges against union members, who are mostly women.

The US has expressed concern over the charging of the women union leaders, saying they only exercised their right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

“We urge Cambodian authorities to release all detained unionists, drop the charges against them, and move to constructively resolve their dispute,” the state department said on March 8.

Christian Berger, the German ambassador to Cambodia, said most NagaWorld activists were women and that they were all brave. “Once again, I urge a return to the negotiating table,” he said on March 8.