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Union Reps and Rights Under Attack at Cambodian Hotel/Casino Naga World

Posted to the IUF website 17-Mar-2009

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The Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers' Federation (CTSWF) called for the immediate reinstatement of 14 union leaders sacked last month from the Naga World Casino in Cambodia at a press conference in Phnom Penh organized by the union on March 14.


Union leaders, shop stewards targeted for dismissals speak out.

The union has been unsuccessfully trying to negotiate a pay increase for the two thousand workers for over a year at the 14-story 5-star hotel/casino, the only legal gambling establishment in Phnom Penh. Naga World's total revenue in 2008 increased by nearly 35%, but the company gave the global financial crisis as its justification for sacking the union leaders and activists, calling for the retrenchment of "those staff who have not proven productive and committed to the cause of the company". This thinly disguised union busting exercise was vigorously denounced by the union as a flagrant violation of international and Cambodian law.

The IUF, in a letter to the parent corporation's CEO Dr. Chen Lip Keong, has called on Naga World to immediately reinstate the dismissed trade unionists and enter into negotiations with the CTSWF.