Nine sawmill workers have filed a complaint with authorities in Oddar Meanchey’s Anlong Veng district after their employer allegedly failed to pay $1,700 in wages.
The workers, all from Anlong Veng commune, claimed they were hired on April 25 by Huot Meng Vita Co to shred timber on an economic land concession but had not been paid.
“We sued the company’s chief of staff for exploiting our labour, and breaking the contract by not paying us from April 25, 2016, until June 3, 2016,” said the complaint.
Pen An, a member of the local commune council, said the company had agreed to pay the workers the money during negotiations between both parties yesterday.
He blamed an intra-company communication breakdown for the lack of payment.
“The economic land concession was unaware of the case because the [company’s] chiefs of staff are the ones who employed the workers” and other company departments were not informed until recently, An said.
“A company representative has settled the dispute by agreeing to pay as demanded in the complaint.”
Neither the employer nor the workers could be reached for comment yesterday.
