The union representing workers at seven luxury hotels on Wednesday agreed to postpone their plans for a strike as hotel management and union officials seek a solution to their dispute, the union’s president said.
After a two-hour meeting with the Ministry of Social Affairs, Ly Korm, president of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation, said workers will not strike on Friday, as they had earlier threatened.
The strike threatened the Hotel Cambodiana, Hotel Inter-Continental, Raffles Grand D’Angkor Hotel, Sunway Hotel, Sofitel Royal Angkor and Pansea Angkor, all of which, the union said, stopped collecting service charges and distributing them to their employees as required by the labor law.
On Tuesday, several hotels tentatively agreed to resume collecting the charge, usually a 10 percent addition to customers’ bills.
“The hotels agree to charge the service charge so we will suspend the strike,” Ly Korm said.
He said the Ministry of Social Affairs had promised a meeting with hotels and union officials on Feb 26 or Feb 27 to discuss how to apply the service charge.
Phnom Penh Hotel Association President Tek Ket praised the union for postponing the strike.
“We want the two sides to be transparent. The hotels don’t want to exploit the unions but the unions must know their borders,” Tek Ket said. “When there is a strike the tourists will think that the country is unsafe, so they will not visit.”
Ker Soksidney, advisor to Minister of Social Affairs Ith Sam Heng, said the ministry will continue to mediate the dispute. “I hope we will have a good solution at the meeting” next week, he said.
