Senior NagaWorld union leaders all received dismissal notices amid the casino’s plan to lay off more than 1,000 employees, a union official said, in what some labor and civil society observers labeled an attempt to eliminate the active union from the workplace.
NagaWorld workers are being offered over $1,000 in compensation for layoffs, they said, with some accepting due to financial difficulties and others rejecting the offer saying they want to stand in solidarity with their union.
NagaWorld has begun its proposed layoffs of 1,329 total workers, according to the casino’s union, which also alleges that long-serving union members are bearing the brunt of the cutbacks.
Phnom Penh casino NagaWorld plans to lay off more than 1,300 workers this month amid its temporary closure due to Covid-19 — a plan its union will contest as a violation of the Labor Law.
More than 1,000 NagaWorld workers have joined an online campaign against suspended salaries after the casino closed due to Covid-19 infections among employees, workers and a union representative said.
Hundreds of workers crowded outside Phnom Penh’s NagaWorld casino as many returned for their second Covid-19 tests following the discovery of several cases there, a workers’ boycott and the suspension of operations last week.
After NagaWorld workers began a work boycott over the weekend about employees being kept in the dark about Covid-19 cases at the casino, its owner NagaCorp announced it would act “responsibly and swiftly to volunteer to temporarily suspend its business.”
Thousands of NagaWorld union and nonunion workers stayed home from work at Phnom Penh’s sole casino and hotel complex over the weekend and on Monday as some workers said they had tested positive for Covid-19, but little information was made available by the company, workers said.
Unesco expressed concern over the impact of NagaCorp’s resort project just south of the Angkor Archaeological Park area in Siem Reap province.
About 200 NagaWorld employees demonstrated at the Labor Ministry on Tuesday after Phnom Penh’s sole licensed casino operator stopped offering workers suspension pay while casinos remain closed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
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