Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Cambodia (Ratification: 1999)

Article 1(d) of the Convention. Punishment for participation in strikes. The Committee previously noted the communication received from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) in 2014 in the context of the application of the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), according to which 23 workers were arrested in January 2014 for participating in strikes and demonstrations. Although all 23 workers were sentenced to between four and five years’ imprisonment, the sentences were suspended and the workers were freed due to international pressure. The Committee also noted that, in his report of 2014, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia expressed concern regarding the upsurge of judicial intimidation of union activists in 2014, which included arrests in Kandal, Kampong Speu and Takeo provinces.

The Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that no workers were arrested for the mere fact of organizing or peacefully participating in a strike, unless they committed criminal offences pursuant to the Penal Code. However, the Committee notes the observations received from the ITUC on 1 September 2017 in the context of the application of Convention No. 87, according to which, 25 leaders of the Cambodian Labour Confederation or its affiliates have been jailed for their union activities since 2014. Among others, two members of the Free Trade Union were arrested without an arrest warrant in February 2016 and charged with incitement and intentional violence by a provincial court a month later. They were leading workers in a one-month strike over the dismissals of three unionists for trying to form a union in Cerie garment factory in Samrong Tong district, although the strike procedure had been followed and the protest was peaceful. In this regard, the Committee once again recalls that pursuant to Article 1(d) of the Convention, no sanctions involving compulsory labour, including compulsory prison labour, should be imposed on workers for the mere fact of organizing or peacefully participating in strikes. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to indicate the legislative provisions and factual arguments on the basis of which individuals have been arrested and prosecuted, for example by providing a copy of police reports or court decisions.

[The Government is asked to supply full particulars to the Conference at its 107th Session and to reply in full to the present comments in 2018.]