Local union leader Chhorn Sokha appeared in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Wednesday to answer questions surrounding her alleged defamation of a factory owner.
She was not arrested, and the courts said they would investigate the matter further, but Chhorn Sokha said after her appearance that her summons to the court set a dangerous precedent for other labor activists.
“Factory owners intimidate the union [in order to] to stop the union, by threatening to imprison [people],” said Chhorn Sokha, president of the Coalition of Cambodia Apparel Workers Union.
She was summoned to give the court testimony following charges from the Sino Nature Garment Factory that her demonstrations against the factory had defamed the name of factory president Chea Soeun.
Chhorn Sokha said Wednesday that her demonstrations against the factory were legal and that she would not be intimidated.
“We are a union. We are responsible to the facts before the law. We respect the law. We aren’t afraid of any threats from the factories,” she said.
Chea Soeun has said that he filed the suit because during a demonstration against the factory, Chhorn Sokha publicly questioned his status as an “okhna,” an honorary title given to influential businessmen.
Through his lawyer, Sar Samnang, Chea Soeun also denied he was trying to intimidate the union.
“My client did not intimidate the union. This is the case that the client is suing individually,” Sar Samnang said. “To sue someone is not intimidation.”
Other labor activists said that the lawsuit was just another example of the kind of antics factories have resorted to in order to quash any resistance to management.
“This is just an annoying action to the unions,” said An Nan, president of the Cambodia Labor Organization. Management “didn’t want the union to obstruct them.”
He said he was doubtful the courts would be of any help to the unions because in the past they have tended to side with managers and owners.
“When unions sue factories, the court is late to solve the problem,” An Nan said. “But when the factories sue the union, they solve the case quickly.”
Cambodia’s access to the lucrative US garment market is dependent on its adherence to labor law.
But US officials and other labor advisers have pointed to the Ministry of Labor and the courts as a weak link in a business sector thought to be one of the most liberal in all of Southeast Asia.
“When workers join a union, the factories try everything to stop the [unionists] from working in the factories,” said Chea Vichea, Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia president.
Concerted worker demonstrations in 2000 brought about a raise in pay, but since then, union leaders have faced mounting opposition from management and the government, which both claim that too many demonstrations dampen the investment climate and cause potential investors to look elsewhere.
Hou Vudthy, deputy director for the Labor Ministry’s department of labor, downplayed the defamation lawsuit between Chea Soeun and Chhorn Sokha.
“Unions have the right to make a strike or demonstration as long as they don’t breach the law,” he said, adding that managers and activists “can both sue each other.”
