Four of five union negotiators returned to a meeting with NagaCorp and the Labor Ministry on Wednesday afternoon — all but union leader Chhim Sithar.
NagaWorld union representatives said they will not attend the third negotiation meeting to resolve their dispute on Wednesday because the casino corporation refuses to discuss reinstatement of workers.
NagaWorld union leaders said the casino company was reluctant to discuss their demand for reinstatement of around 200 laid-off workers on Monday, as protestors continued to get detained over the weekend.
After months of near-daily striking, negotiations resumed in the NagaWorld labor dispute on Friday, though workers said little progress was made.
The final three NagaWorld unionists imprisoned at Phnom Penh’s PJ Prison have been released and returned home Thursday afternoon, according to rights group Licadho.
Union leader Chhim Sithar said she might have compromised too much in a letter made public this week asking workers to stop protesting to resume negotiations, which had been met with “disappointment” by union members.
Amid new turns in the long-running NagaWorld labor dispute on Tuesday, workers simply continued their protests, landing 166 of them once again in brief Covid-19 quarantine.
Eight jailed NagaWorld workers, including union leader Chhim Sithar, sent letters to the Labor Ministry asking its intervention to get them bail and called for their colleagues to suspend the strike to enable negotiations, according to the ministry.
Authorities stopped observers from taking photographs as NagaWorld protesters were again forced onto buses and taken to a Phnom Penh quarantine center.
A meeting of several governmental departments led by Interior Minister Sar Kheng to defuse the NagaWorld labor conflict was “preliminary,” City Hall said, as officials stayed tight-lipped on Thursday about the talks.
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