Watchdog warns laying off 1,300 employees from Cambodia’s biggest casino could cause family fragmentation

Phnom Penh/Cambodia – NagaWorld, one of Cambodia’s biggest casinos, sparked a nationwide outrage following its decision to lay off some 1,300 staff in April 2021, citing COVID-19 constraints.

This ignited protests in the streets of Phnom Penh on January 4, 2022, by key unionists and activists calling for the return of the laid-off staff.

Chan Nath, ex-Staff of Nagaworld, accused the company of using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to lay off its staff.

He pointed out that the layoff targets and discriminates against union leaders as they represent 92 percent of the dismissed employees.

Chak Sopheap, director of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), also lamented the arrest of some unionists and activists.

Sopheap pointed out that Nagaworld workers’ strike is considered a peaceful assembly which is a right guaranteed by the law and international human rights instruments, and issuing such a decision violates this right.

So Meta, an advocate against social injustice, worried that the families of the staff who lost their job might face fragmentation violence due to financial hardship.

Ros Sotha of the Cambodian Human Rights Action Coalition urged the authorities to release the detained protestors and said, as elections near; decision-makers must solve the crisis because it is most likely to affect their outcomes.

“I believe that as a big company, they still try to address the problem peacefully and to save their reputation. But so far it appears that this company uses the backup support from the authority, which will play their independent role to support all citizens here,” said Nath, stressing that their demands to release the eight union leaders and reach an appropriate solution.