Police in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap ordered striking workers on Monday to move their demonstrations away from the Raffles Le Royal and Grand Hotel d’Angkor hotels, where employees resumed striking after the hotels announced their intention to fire them.
Workers demonstrating in front of Le Royal in Phnom Penh moved their protest 20 meters back from the hotel, after municipal police threatened to use electric batons and confiscate employees’ motorbikes if they did not comply, hotel union president Sao Van Thein said Monday.
“The police would have beaten us if we had reacted,” he said.
Municipal deputy police chief Moung Khim denied that police threatened workers, saying, “our principle is to protect the workers and the hotel.”
In Siem Reap, police ordered a crowd of demonstrators to move 100 meters away from the hotel, hotel union president Pap Sambo said.
Siem Reap district police chief Pheun Arun declined to characterize the officers’ actions as a crackdown on strikers.
“We always told the workers not to turn the strike violent,” he said.
Also on Monday, Siem Reap provincial court indefinitely suspended a hearing that will determine whether the hotel should levy the service charge, the strikers’ main point of contention. The hearing was set to start Monday.
Judge Ang Mealatey said the hotel’s lawyer asked him to postpone the hearing until the court settles another dispute over the legality of the strike. Though the provincial court declared the strike illegal in an April 8 ruling, the union has filed a complaint against that decision. The case is currently at the Appeals Court.
Grand Hotel d’Angkor delivered letters of termination to all striking employees Saturday. The hotel’s lawyer, Chhit Boravuth, refused to comment Monday on whether the hotel would offer those workers severance pay, or why it asked to have Monday’s trial suspended.
Meanwhile, three workers at the Hotel Cambodiana who had participated in the strike there earlier this month were told by hotel personnel that their contracts would not be renewed. Cambodian Tourism and Service Worker Federation president Ly Korm said the workers were told they could have their jobs back if they pledged not to strike in the future, though hotel officials on Monday denied they had made such a move.
“This would be discrimination,” said Pierre Bernard, general manager of Hotel Cambodiana.
The hotel is at 20 percent capacity and is overstaffed, managing director Michel Horn said. Hotel Cambodiana will not renew the contracts of several employees, and does not take union affiliation into account when determining which ones to terminate, he said.
