Chhim Sithar, 36, has recently been released after two years in prison. The trade unionist was convicted by the Cambodian regime for ‘inciting’ to commit felony. Her crime? Advocating for the rights of workers at NagaWorld, the largest casino in Cambodia, located in the heart of the capital, Phnom Penh.
In 2021, around 1,300 employees of the casino, the majority of whom are members of the Labor Rights Supported Union of NagaWorld Employees (LRSU), which Sithar leads, were made redundant under the pretext of poor economic performance due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, reported pre-tax profits of over 22 million dollars that same year.
Chhim Sithar believes that the primary aim of the redundancies was to weaken the LRSU’s influence within the company. The union was on the verge of representing half of the casino’s employees, which, under Cambodian law, would have allowed it to participate in annual collective bargaining. In response to the dismissals, Sithar led a series of demonstrations calling for the reinstatement of the terminated employees. These protests were among the largest Cambodia had witnessed in a decade, and continued until Sithar was arrested in January 2022.
In full: https://www.equaltimes.org/cambodian-trade-union-leader-chhim?lang=en
