About 150 employees at the Japanese-owned quality-control firm Kuwahara Cambodia protested on Wednesday outside the Hotel Cambodiana, where the company’s head office is located.
Sin Sambo, a workers’ representative, said that they were protesting against the scrapping of a monthly $10 motivational “regular-work” bonus, as well as that of an end-of-year bonus equal to a month’s salary.
“After a negotiation this morning, we didn’t get any positive result,” he said.
“We will protest again tomorrow.” Yang Sovannara, administration manager at Kuwahara, said that the company’s decision was based on the recommendation of the Arbitration Council.
“The Arbitration Council decided that we don’t need to offer a regular-work bonus because we are not a textile company, just a product quality-control firm,” said Mr. Sovannara, explaining that the firm currently oversees quality at clothing and shoe factories.
He said the firm would make a final decision on the “13th month bonus” next week.
“We cannot make a decision now because all of our bosses are not in the country,” he said.
