Unions, advocates call for Union Law revisions
TRADE unions and rights groups yesterday called on the government to amend or clarify sections of the recently passed Union Law, citing increasing bureaucratic hurdles to register new factory-level affiliates.
The Trade Union Law was heavily criticised prior to its passage in May for not conforming to local laws or International Labour Organization conventions. Six months later, unions insist that concerns raised prior to its passage – particularly heightened barriers to union creation and cumbersome new financial reporting requirements – are now ground realities.
“After the law was passed, we have tried to register local unions, and they require so many documents to be given to the ministry. It is very difficult,” said Pav Sina, president of the Collective Union of Movement of Workers.
Sina was speaking at a symposium in Phnom Penh – organised by advocacy groups Solidarity Center and the Community Legal Education Center – to assess the Trade Union Law’s implementation thus far.
While it was difficult for workers to form new unions even with his federation’s help, Sina said it was close to impossible for employees who lacked assistance from bigger groups to organise.
Agreeing with Sina, Yang Sophorn, president of Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions, said the annual reporting requirements were another big concern among unions.
Much like the NGO Law, the Trade Union Law requires unions to submit financial and activity reports annually. Failing to do so, the law empowers the Labour Ministry to file a lawsuit in yet-to-be-established labour courts that could lead to penalties including revocation of the union’s registration.
“Many don’t have money to buy a [required] union stamp – how will they do financial reporting?” said Sophorn, adding that there needed to be a softening of the requirements.
Separately yesterday, the Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) program was officially extended through 2019 after stakeholders – the government, the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia and the International Labour Organization – signed a new memorandum of understanding.
Esther Germans, BFC’s program manager, said the new agreement would be a continuation of the existing mandate, but will look to better the government’s inspections and enforcement capacities. pelled Sopheap from the site. The pair have not spoken since.
“I don’t leave from someone, but if they leave, I don’t chase after them,” Sopheap said of his expulsion in an interview last week, before declining to comment any further about Cheavutha. “I don’t want to say anything bad,” he said.
Yet Sopheap, who says that he remains close to Hun Sen, said his philosophy at Fresh News and Deum Ampil was always to not shy away from claims he was biased toward the government.
“I never argue with people when they say I am pro-CPP or pro-government or pro-Hun Sen. I say that they are right,” Sopheap said. He added that his news supported the CPP over the CNRP because the party has more seats in the National Assembly.
“It’s because I support them that I have freedom to write what I want,” he continued. “I never criticise government policy – I support Hun Sen, so that means I support government policy and I just criticise the individuals. This is the role of journalists.”
“I criticise the individuals who do Sopheap, before describing Fresh News as both financially and editorially independent.
“We are 100 percent independent, because we are a private institution and we survive completely on advertising, and do not rely on any officials. We feed our staff, provide their salaries and run as a business.”
Cheavutha added there was no secret to how Fresh News had monopolised breaking news about the government since its launch two and half years ago. “To receive good news, we keep good sources,” he said.
Moeun Chhean Nariddh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies, said he did not think it was necessarily a bad thing that Fresh News had grown so close to the government, with the site becoming important for independent news outlets.
“After Fresh News gets the documents from the government, independent media outlets like the Phnom Penh Post or Radio Free Asia or Voice of Democracy can focus on the other side of the story,” said Chhean Nariddh. “So Fresh News fills a gap.”
He said an awareness had likely developed among many CPP officials that they could provide scoops to Fresh News without risking critical inquiry.
“Their editor has a relationship with the ruling party politicians,” he explained. “Sometimes they do not know if it is safe to release their information to journalists, but they seem to feel that their information is in safe hands if it is released to Fresh News.”
CPP spokesman Sok Eysan said the ruling party indeed appreciated the emergence of Fresh News over the past two years, but said that any criticism of the bent of their coverage was undeserved. “It is their individual rights as citizens,” Eysan said, adding that political bias in media was often in the eye of the beholder. “I have the view that the Phnom Penh Post is not independent,” he said.
I never argue with people when they say I am pro-CPP or pro-Hun Sen