Some 300 workers protested in front of the Raffles Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap Monday demanding back their jobs, union officials said, as Raffles Hotel Le Royal in Phnom Penh submitted a request to the Ministry of Social Affairs to recognize a new union formed with workers hired to replace 97 fired employees.
“We organized the protest to demand that the hotel allow us to go back to work,” said Grand Hotel union president Pat Sambo. Workers from the Pansea and Sofitel Royal Angkor hotels joined the Grand Hotel workers in solidarity, he said Monday.
Pat Sambo led the Grand Hotel’s union to strike in April, demanding to receive part of a service charge. The Grand Hotel fired more than 190 strikers and signed a bargaining agreement with the new hires.
Raffles Le Royal Hotel also penned a bargaining agreement with new hires. According to a May 18 letter from the hotel to Houd Chanthy, director of labor inspection at the Ministry of Social Affairs, the hotel has requested that the ministry register the new agreement. Officials from the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation, who obtained a copy of the Le Royal letter, did not know if the Grand Hotel had submitted a similar request.
Riaz Mahmood, general manager at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor, said Monday he was at a meeting in Beijing and did not know of the protest. He declined to comment on the bargaining agreement. Houd Chanthy could not be reached for comment Monday.
General director of the Ministry’s Labor Department Oum Mean said he was unaware of the Raffles’ request, but said the hotels are allowed to have more than one union. “We are very happy that the union and the hotels reached the agreement and we will look into the request and approve it,” Oum Mean said. The labor law, however, forbids a company from negotiating agreements with any party other than its majority union registered with the ministry.
