Cambodian trade union leader Chhim Sithar, 36, was recently released after spending two years in prison. She was convicted by the Cambodian regime for ‘inciting’ public disorder. 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 Chhim 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 US$22 million 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.

Her struggle resonated beyond Cambodia’s borders, drawing support from several international labour organisations, including the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), as well as human rights organisations like Amnesty International. In February 2023, she was named one of ten people to receive the Human Rights Defender Award from the US Department of State.

In a conversation with Equal Times, Chhim Sithar discusses her commitment to defending workers’ rights in Cambodia, her years of detention, and what her future holds – particularly whether her plans may involve the still unresolved labour conflict at NagaWorld.

You were released on 16 September 2024, after spending two years behind bars at Phnom Penh Correctional Detention Centre No. 2. Can you describe the conditions you experienced during your detention?

It was very difficult, primarily due to overcrowding. The cell was about 55 square metres. When I first arrived there were around 60 of us sharing just one toilet and one water supply for washing and cleaning clothes. By the end of my detention, conditions had improved somewhat, as we were down to ‘only’ 40 inmates in the cell. Fortunately, the guards and my fellow inmates treated me well. In Cambodia, some public figures face particularly harsh treatment in prison, but that wasn’t my experience. My fellow inmates had heard about my fight for the NagaWorld employees and respected me for it, I was given a bit more sleeping space. It was also relatively easy for me to have my family visit and have food brought in from the outside so I could avoid the terrible meals served in prison.

Now that you’ve served your sentence, what’s next for you? Will you resume your fight for NagaWorld employees, and if so, what are your goals?

The mobilisation of NagaWorld employees never fully ceased, even during my time in prison. Now that I’m out, I’m ready to resume leading the fight for our rights. After the redundancies in 2021, we made nine demands, none of which received a satisfactory response. These can be summarised in a few key points: the reinstatement of the employees who were laid off, especially union members; fair compensation that addresses the financial losses faced by those employees as a result of their termination; and improved working conditions, particularly through the implementation of guidelines to better protect female workers, who are often harassed by customers. Around 400 of the 1,300 employees who were laid off continue to support the movement. Among them, around 80 employees, including myself, are asking for their jobs back.

Are you afraid of the legal consequences that you will face if you resume the fight?

I’ve always done the opposite of what I was told to do. As a child, I always went to places my parents told me not to go. Later, I was told that higher education wasn’t for women, so I pursued a university degree. As for NagaWorld, I have no intention of stopping: I refuse to let my two years behind bars be in vain. If I end up back in prison for my union activism, so be it. I’m also aware that repression can escalate, as it did during the major protests in 2014, when several people lost their lives simply because they were demanding better working conditions and fairer pay. I’m ready for any scenario, even the darkest.

Why continue the struggle?

I’m convinced that if NagaWorld is allowed to openly violate workers’ rights, other companies will follow suit. While there are some companies in Cambodia where social dialogue functions relatively well, the trend leans towards restricting trade union freedoms in order to maximise corporate profits. The country obviously needs investment from private enterprises, but we also need decent working conditions, not exploitation. Only independent trade unions can bring about these changes and ensure that workers can live better and work under improved conditions.

The protests by NagaWorld employees were among the largest social movements that Cambodia has witnessed in the past decade, but they faced violent repression from the authorities. What kind of pressure were you and the other protestors subjected to?

We did not expect the authorities to intervene in a labour dispute within a private company. Commune leaders approached the families of the demonstrators, pressuring them not to participate in the protests and telling them that it was a movement against the government. Agents from microfinance institutions threatened several of our members, warning them that they would be denied loans if they joined the protests. The government said that we were instigating a ‘colour revolution’ [a term frequently used by the government to describe the actions of its opponents], which is clearly absurd: this was a labour dispute with a private company, not an attempt at revolution!

In my case, the repression was both systematic and ruthless. If I’m not mistaken, I’m the only trade union leader in the country to have received a two-year prison sentence, the maximum sentence for the charge of ‘incitement’ with which I was convicted. The government made an example out of me. My sentence sent a clear message: “We don’t want others being inspired by your struggle. If you refuse to stop, we will make you stop.”

In June, the human rights NGO CENTRAL published a report on the barriers to freedom of association in Cambodia. The organisation has since been the subject of an administrative procedure that could lead to its closure. What do this report and the authorities’ response reveal about the current state of freedom of association in Cambodia?

The situation of trade unions is extremely precarious. After my case and that of the LRSU, the recent attack on CENTRAL is particularly concerning. According to the government, Cambodia boasts thousands of trade unions and is a virtual paradise for these organisations. But workers’ rights organisations such as CENTRAL paint a very different picture: their latest report highlighted numerous violations of workers’ rights, contradicting the government’s narrative. So it’s hardly surprising that the government is trying to prevent organisations of this kind from operating properly.

For several years, the rise of non-independent unions aligned with the government has prevented independent unions from taking part in social dialogue. The 2016 trade union law has made representation significantly more difficult. Independent unions have since become increasingly weak, and the space for freedom has been diminishing. For example, the law requires that a workers’ union represent an absolute majority of workers [50 per cent + 1 employee] in order to legally call a strike. With the proliferation of small, government-aligned unions, reaching this threshold has become nearly impossible.

Is it true that, before the redundancies at the end of 2021 and the strikes that followed, the LRSU was close to representing half of NagaWorld’s employees?

Yes, that’s right. And that’s definitely why so many union members were sacked. After our initial strike in 2019 demanding a pay rise, we were perceived as a threat. With these mass redundancies, management tried to undermine us. But what we wanted was better working conditions.

Despite this bleak picture, are you optimistic about the future?

It’s vital to continue the fight. If we want fundamental freedoms to be respected, we have to exercise them: it’s our duty to keep speaking out and coming together for our rights. We can’t remain silent just because we’re afraid of prison or of losing our jobs. If we do nothing, then obviously nothing will change. If we fight, change is possible. The government often accuses union representatives of not acting in Cambodia’s best interests. But the truth is that our goals are compatible with these interests. For example, our fight for better wages and working conditions helps to reduce poverty in the country, which is one of the government’s objectives.