Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) - Cambodia (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore once again request the Government:

–      to amend the legislation so as to ensure that judges as well as temporarily and permanently appointed officials in the public service enjoy the right to establish and join organizations;

–      to specify the meaning of “civil servants of the legislative order” mentioned in section 1 of the Common Statutes for Civil Servants;

–      to provide details on the registration procedure and in particular, to indicate whether workers’ and employers’ organizations might be refused registration;

–      to amend section 269(3) of the Labour Law, which disqualifies persons convicted of any crime from being elected for the post of responsible for the administration and management of a professional organization, as well as section 2(3) of Prakas No. 277 on the Registration of Professional Organisations which provides that persons responsible for the leadership and administration of the organization should have never been convicted of any criminal acts, in order to limit this restriction to convictions clearly touching upon the integrity of the person concerned;

–      to amend section 269(4) of the Labour Law, which requires trade union members to be engaged in the profession or the job for at least one year before being elected to trade union office, either by exempting from the occupational requirement a reasonable proportion of the officers of an organization, or by admitting as candidates persons who have been engaged in the industry for less than one year and those who have previously been employed in the organization concerned;

–      to amend section 326(1), which provides that a minimum service should be arranged in the enterprise where the strike is taking place and if there is no agreement between the parties to the dispute, the Ministry of Labour shall determine the minimum services in question;

–      to amend section 326(2) of the Labour Law, which provides that workers who are required to provide minimum service and who do not appear for such work are considered guilty of serious misconduct;

–      to amend the legislation so as to ensure that any disagreement concerning the establishment of minimum services is settled by an independent body having the confidence of all the parties to the dispute and not the executive or administrative authority; and

–      to indicate whether the unions of professional organizations have the right to affiliate with international organizations, and to specify the relevant legislative provisions.

The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed on the measures taken or envisaged in respect of all of the above-mentioned points.

The Committee further notes the comments on the application of the Convention submitted by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in a communication of 31 August 2005. The Committee notes that these comments concern legislative issues raised in its previous direct request and, more particularly, the exclusion of civil servants from the scope of the Labour Law, the limitations to the right to elect union representatives freely and the restrictions to the right to strike notably by imposing a minimum service requirement in all enterprises regardless of whether they are public utilities. The ICFTU furthermore alleges that although affiliates of the Cambodian Construction Trade Union Federation (CCTUF) had gained the most representative status at the Angkor Wat conservation project site, management refuses to recognize and negotiate with it. The ICFTU also underlines that two trade union leaders were murdered, that unionists faced threats, intimidation, harassment, and physical attacks and that strikes and protests met with violent police repression. The Committee requests the Government to communicate its observations thereon.