Cambodian Journalists Alliance Association

Union Gives Bus Company ‘One Last Chance’ To Finish Negotiations

Laid off Giant Ibis Transport bus drivers protest on May 7 in front of the company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, seeking compensation for unpaid wages. (Supplied)
Laid off Giant Ibis Transport bus drivers protest on May 7 in front of the company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh, seeking compensation for unpaid wages. (Supplied)

Giant Ibis Transport has again delayed negotiations with 30 laid off union members who say they are owed years-worth of wages and benefits. 

The bus company, founded by tycoon Kith Meng’s Royal Group, had previously promised to calculate and provide severance pay and other benefits owed to employees by Wednesday, following Labor Ministry-facilitated negotiations. The company already failed to meet a prior deadline to ascertain the unpaid wages and benefits and requested a delay in late May.

The union members estimate they are collectively owed more than $100,000 by the company according to the labor law or around $7,000 to $8,000 per person, union leader Siem Morady says. He and two other union leaders fingerprinted a letter Wednesday allowing the company to calculate and provide compensation by June 23, a letter viewed by CamboJA shows. 

Morady says the union believes the company, which he says has repeatedly claimed to have miscalculated what workers are owed, is not acting in good faith.

“Our union members have already figured out the severance and seniority payment, but they [the company] still did not want to calculate,” Morady said. “They have no sense of responsibility to calculate the payment. I wonder why a very big company does not have an expert [to do this]. I think this is only their ploy.”

Morady said that if the company does not move forward with determining compensation packages by the agreed upon June 23 deadline, then the workers will resume their protests. 

“The company has such an obstinate manner,” Morady said. “They always delay [paying compensation]. It is the same thing, delaying again and again. We decided to give them one last chance until June 23. But there will be no other postponement.”

Giant Ibis representative Ou Phanny — who signed the agreement on behalf of the company — said he was “just a mediator” and blamed the Labor Ministry for the delays in negotiations.

“We have already provided them [the laid off union members] the payroll [calculations], accordingly there are no problems,” Phanny said. “It was the ministry who asked to postpone the negotiations and then the company who made the decision.”

A letter viewed by CamboJA stated that the company and union members met at the Labor Ministry office Wednesday but “did not reach a compromise.”

The two sides “agreed to postpone the meeting…to let both parties prepare and organize relevant documents related to payroll more clearly,” the letter stated.

Morady, the union leader, said he felt the Labor Ministry had been “neglectful” in resolving the case.

When asked over Telegram if the bus company had violated the labor law by suspending workers for more than two months without receiving government permission, Labor Ministry spokesperson Heng Sour replied: “Wrong.”

Sour did not respond to further requests for comment.

Morady said the union members face discrimination from the company, which allegedly hired new workers instead of reinstating laid off union employees. Laid off union employees could be rehired if they agreed to renounce the full amount of benefits they were owed and begin new contracts, Morady said. 

“Employees who had no choice, they accepted it,” he said. “This is real exploitation.”

Kith Meng and the Royal Group did not respond to requests for comment. 

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