REPRESENTATIVES of 500 construction workers in Battambang province hired to work for a Chinese hydropower company say they will file a complaint to the provincial court today, claiming their employer owes them more than US$14,000 in back pay.

Local police say the head of the unnamed local sub-contractor, which hired the workers to build 46 electricity poles for the Chinese firm, had disappeared without paying the workers’ salaries.

“The head of the construction escaped as the construction was finished, as it was time to pay the workers,” said Ouk Sovath, chief of the crime unit of the Battambang provincial police. “Local police are now investigating and plan to arrest the head of the [company].”

Yin Mengly, a provincial monitor for local rights group Adhoc, said the group had received word of the case, but was not closely involved in the investigation.