Camboya - Union registration obstructed

The Cambodian authorities continue to prevent union registration for arbitrary reasons or for extremely minor technical errors. In one case, a union submitted its application to the Ministry of Labour on 25 December 2020, with all ten types of documents required by law. In the first week of February 2021, local union leaders were called by the ministry for the first time to correct spelling mistakes on the cover letter and in the profile of union leaders. On 15 February, local union leaders resubmitted the corrected documents to the ministry. Over two months later, on 7 May 2021, local union leaders were called a second time to correct the size of the photos of the union leaders from 3x4 to 4x6. They resubmitted the documents once again. As of 18 May 2021, the union was still not registered, after considerable time and resources having been expended to submit the application. Other unions have reported similar efforts by the authorities to deny union registration over issues that have nothing to do with ascertaining whether workers have expressed their intent to be represented by a union.