Civil servants’ union dilemma

The American Center for International Labor Solidarity has set its sights on the Herculean task of unionizing Cambodia’s civil service, a move that, were it successful, could have profound implications for the country’s political landscape. The term civil service in Cambodia has unusually broad application, referring to bureaucrats, teachers, doctors, police and nurses – professions that are, at least officially, all rewarded with remuneration that makes garment workers look positively well-off. Their wages are virtually unlivable  though skilled professionals, civil servants, excluding soldiers, earn an average of $48 a month along with a small supplementary living allowance and possible overtime, opposition Sam Rainsy Party financial data shows. … In 2010, the government cancelled a program that allowed international donors to pay performance-based salary supplements to civil servants, arguing it had been terminated because the program could jeopardize attempts at broader civil service reforms. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012103059469/National-news/civil-servants-union-dilemma.html