A dozen laid off union members of bus company Giant Ibis Transport resumed their protests on Saturday after the company once-again reneged on promises to provide compensation.
“They lied to us. They lied to the ministry,” union leader Siem Morady said. “This company has violated the labor law in Cambodia.”
Labor Ministry spokesperson Heng Sour told CamboJA via Telegram that “the Ministry will require the company to implement the agreement” to provide compensation, but did not respond to further questions.
Giant Ibis has repeatedly delayed the deadlines to complete negotiations, which were initially set to conclude in late May. On Friday, the company did not provide workers with final calculations for their severance and seniority benefits as the union and the company had agreed to on June 23.
“Even though they [Giant Ibis] had signed off on the agreement [to complete negotiations on June 30], they violated it,” Morady said.
Giant Ibis did not respond to requests for comment.
The union says the 30 laid off employees are owed compensation under labor law after having their employment suspended indefinitely since April 2020. The union says the workers are each owed between $7,000 and $8,000, while the company has delayed providing its own calculations.
At the time, the company gave laid off workers the choice of being removed from their positions permanently without severance payment or else waiting to be reinstated without receiving any payment. The company has now begun to re-hire non-union employees who were previously laid off in an act of union discrimination, Morady claimed.
After signing a document promising not to protest while negotiations were underway, Morady says the union is returning to protest outside the company’s headquarters.
“We came here to request the company to take us back to work,” said Morady outside the headquarters on Saturday. “The company has exploited and oppressed employees.”
“We had been working for and helped prosper this company for years, but now they abandon us without any resolves to this tough situation, he added.
“There is no efficiency from the Labor Ministry,” Morady said. “It seems like they are biased towards the employer, or maybe they had received bribes behind the scene. We will continue to advocate until we get what we want since we cannot do anything else [besides protesting].”
Giant Ibis was launched by tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group and appears to remain under the conglomerate’s ownership. Meng and the Royal Group did not respond to requests for comment.
Laid off bus driver Or Chanthy, a father of two and union member, said he had believed the company would resolve the matter fairly at first.
“We had already negotiated and the agreement was also unanimously made,” he said. “However, they have been transparently seen to breach all those things.”
After Saturday’s protest, the group of laid off union members returned to their hometowns because they could not afford to stay longer in the city to protest. Everyone has taken other side jobs to survive, so the protest can only take place only on the weekends, said Chanthy, who is from Takeo province. He said he had microfinance debt to repay and his financial situation was increasingly desperate.
“It affects our livelihood too much, as coming to the city costs a lot of money,” Chanthy told CamboJA. “We spend on food, accommodation and much more.”
He added that the employees had wanted to avoid a protest and had hoped the company would reach a resolution through reasonable negotiations.
“We want all employers to protect employees according to law,” he said. “And we want to act as role models for other victims like us.”
