Friday, 3 July 2009

Staff at Cintri sanitation set for strike

The Phnom Penh Post
Written by Khuon Leakhana
Friday, 03 July 2009

WORKERS for the garbage collection company Cintri are prepared to go on strike next week unless the company agrees to their demands, the trade union representing the workers said Thursday.

"We plan to go on strike if the results of the negotiations do not result in the company meeting our requests," said Mom Sarorn, president of trade union Tufikel, which threatened a similar strike last week.

Mom Sarorn said the strike threat was sparked when Cintri transferred two workers to Kampong Som because they criticised the company. The two men are returning to Phnom Penh next week, even though they have been told to stay at their new post.

"We plan to go on strike when the two activists return from Kampong Som [next week]," Mom Sarorn said. "On their arrival, if the company suddenly decides to fire them, then we will immediately go on strike."

Many workers were dissatisfied long before the incident with the two workers, Mom Sarorn said, adding that Cintri does not provide safe working conditions or fair wages.

"The company must properly equip all labourers with face masks, long neck boots, raincoats, and it needs to pay 30 percent more to night-shift workers instead of just 10 percent at the moment," he said.

Tufikel officials warned last Friday that Cintri workers were prepared to strike, but City Hall requested to act as a mediator between the company and the union, and the strike plans were cancelled.

But because the two sides could not reach an agreement, Tufikel has said that a strike is back on the table.

"City Hall and their committee of mediators has decided that the company is right, so I have nothing to negotiate with them about," Seng Chamroeun, Cintri's deputy director, told the Post Thursday.

Cintri employs between 1,300 and 1,400 people, Seng Chamroeun said.

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