A Kandal province factory is continuing to refuse to reinstate workers whom it fired as they were trying to start a union, and workers now want to take up the issue with the factory’s international clients.
Only about 400 of an estimated 2,000 members of the embattled union have so far voted five days into a seven-day leadership election.
As NagaWorld workers protest their termination from the casino, union members and labor advocates in the garment sector say they too are facing union-busting with factories using the Covid-19 pandemic as cover to target them.
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.
The second day of negotiations between NagaWorld union organizers, the management of the Hong Kong-listed company and Phnom Penh city officials ended with no results as workers wrapped up a fifth, foggy day on strike in front of the casino complex.
The Phnom Penh Municipal Court deemed a strike by hundreds of suspended and active NagaWorld workers illegal, while authorities deemed the strike a violation of Covid-19 protocols and ordered workers to end the strike.
The new wage was voted on after four rounds of weekly negotiations between unions, which initially suggested a $22 raise; employers, which wanted to see the minimum wage cut by $4; and the Labor Ministry.
A NagaWorld union representative said the Arbitration Council refused to adjudicate on the validity of the mega casino’s decision to layoff more than 1,300 workers, with a labor advocate saying the council wants a labor inspection procedure to decide the matter.
Garment and footwear unions asked brands to make their Cambodian suppliers pay workers that they say were short-changed during lockdowns, suspensions and permanent closures, in effect asking brands to intervene on the way the Labor Ministry and factories interpret the law.
In a move a labor group said was unprecedented, NagaWorld is calling on governmental labor inspectors to authorize the dismissal of a group of union leaders as part of the casino’s mass layoffs, overriding the legal protections unionists enjoy unless they have committed serious offenses, a workers’ representative said.
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