Before attending a strike at Nagaworld Casino in January, Chhim Sithar cropped her hair short and photographed herself holding a placard stating, ‘I am imprisoned after demanding Naga Corp respect union rights’. The union leader at the luxury Hong Kong-owned complex is among dozens arrested on charges of ‘incitement to commit a felony’ since strike action began in December, following an eight-month dispute over the company’s decision to sack more than 1,300 workers.
Announced last April, Nagaworld justified the lay-offs on the grounds of pandemic-related revenue falls. Yet employees and activists claim the casino – whose latest annual balance sheet reportedly indicates a turnover of $102 million – is deliberately targeting union activists. ‘The company intends to discriminate and destroy the union,’ says Sophorn Yang, president of the Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions. ‘It is clear that Nagaworld does not want them to raise and protect the rights of workers in the country.’
