GGRAsia – Striking NagaWorld staff back to work, no deal: filing

Striking NagaWorld staff back to work, no deal: filing

Jan 14, 2020 Newsdesk Latest News, Rest of Asia, Top of the deck

Casino developer and operator NagaCorp Ltd says that all of the employees of its NagaWorld casino complex (pictured in a file photo) in Phnom Penh, that took part in a strike last week, had returned to work on Sunday “without any wage increases”.

In a Tuesday filing, Hong Kong-listed NagaCorp noted that business operations of the group “remained normal” during what the company said was an “illegal strike” last Thursday. In a Saturday report, Reuters news agency quoted one of the strikers – a union activist – as saying that the disgruntled workers had returned to work after NagaCorp agreed to raise the workers’ salaries “between 18 percent and 30 percent”.

The Reuters story also said that under a reported deal between the striking employees and NagaCorp, the strikers had obtained the reinstatement of the NagaWorld Union president, Chhim Sithar, who had been suspended in September. Tuesday’s filing by NagaCorp made no reference to Ms Sithar and whether she had been reinstated.

GGRAsia approached NagaCorp for a comment but had not received a reply by the time this story went online. But in Tuesday’s filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, NagaCorp said that “all the employees” who participated in Thursday’s strike had returned to work on Sunday, “pursuant to … court orders” obtained by the company.

NagaCorp had said in a Friday filing it had obtained a court injunction from the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on the Wednesday (January 8) of that week, a day before the strike was due. The injunction had “ruled that the planned employees’ strike … shall be considered as an illegal strike and that the employees who participate in the illegal strike will be considered as committing a grave offence”.

The company had said additionally that the Phnom Penh Court of First Instance “issued a ruling order” on Thursday that week to investigate the strike and “to take the necessary legal action against the employees who were involved in such illegal strike for violation of the court injunction”.

In a previous filing on Friday, NagaCorp had defended the working conditions at its property and said it expected “no negative impact” on its business operations following the strike by some disgruntled workers.

The casino operator said in its Friday filing that “approximately 500 to 700 employees” out of a workforce of “8,200” at the complex, participated in the “illegal gathering” on Thursday outside the company’s properties. A report from Reuters news agency said thousands of workers had taken part in the strike.

NagaCorp had indicated that the unionised workers were seeking a monthly minimum wage of US$300 for hotel employees, and US$500 for casino employees. A previous report from Reuters cited some of the striking workers as saying that their starting wages were at between the range of “US$150 to US$250” a month.