An eight-day strike at six luxury hotels in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap ended Monday with the Arbitration Council’s consent to rehear workers’ complaints about service charges.
“We will go back to work,” said Ly Korm, who as president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation has led the strike of some 2,000 hotel workers into the Khmer New Year holiday.
The Arbitration Council—the body that hears labor disputes—ordered the strike’s end after a three-hour meeting Monday and agreed to hear individual complaints about service charges at Hotel Cambodiana, Sunway Hotel, Hotel InterContinental and Sofitel Angkor Hotel.
Workers striking at two other hotels, Raffles Le Royal and Grand Hotel d’Angkor, also agreed to return to work.
The dispute has centered on the hotels’ collection of service charges and what percentage of that revenue goes to hotel workers. Union workers are demanding at least 75 percent of the charge, which is about 10 percent of a hotel guest’s bill.
No resolution was reached on that issue, and hotel owners opted for Council hearings instead of outside mediation with the workers. They said attempts at mediation had too often failed in the past.
“I don’t want mediation. I want the Arbitration Council,” said Michel Horn, managing director of Hotel Cambodiana.
“They wanted to ruin our business and right now they have succeeded. I congratulate them,” said Manfred Hager, general manager of the Sunway Hotel.
The Council is scheduled to begin the hearings on April 21, on the condition that the workers report back to the hotels, said Council member Matthew Rendall.
Ly Korm had asked that the workers be allowed to collect their salaries and have vacation time for Khmer New Year. Hotel owners shot down that proposal.
“There is no holiday because they danced and sang karaoke” already, said Horn, referring to the picketers outside the six hotels. Horn maintained that Hotel Cambodiana will not resume collecting the service charges—a practice that the luxury hotels dropped after the government ruled that some of the revenue must go to workers.
The hotel “will offer a monthly fixed fee but not the service charge,” Horn said.
“Service charge or not is not important. The important thing is to have a good salary in their pockets,” he said.
The Cambodiana had filed a court complaint alleging the strike at that hotel was illegal. Municipal Judge Tan Senarong on Monday ruled that the strike was legal, but publicly urged the workers to return to work.
Thong Khon, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Tourism, pledged that the government will soon issue a directive to hotels to resume collecting the service charge, in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Affairs, said a hotel union president who met with the official in Siem Reap.
Pap Sambo, who heads workers at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor, said he remained skeptical but would tell his union to end the strike.
“I don’t believe him, until I see the directive,” he said Monday morning.
It remained unclear if the workers will be paid for the time taken off during the strike that began April 5 at six of seven hotels. The council ordered the hotels not to penalize the workers until after it conducts its hearings.
The Council will not hear complaints at Raffles Le Royal or Grand d’Angkor, as the body has already ruled that those hotels must reinstate service charges. The two hotels appealed that decision to Municipal Court and the Siem Reap Provincial Court, respectively.
A strike over service charges at Pansea Angkor Hotel was ended last week through mediation.
