Just over half of the 29 employees at the state-run Polytechnic Institute in Sihanoukville are pushing the Ministry of Labour to act on a complaint seeking the dismissal of Neak Narith and Pheng Ny – a couple who are the school’s head and deputy head, respectively – for nepotism, complainant representative Muy Chheng Moeun said yesterday.

“The Ministry of Labour said they would come today, but we have not seen them,” Chheng Moeun said, adding that Narith had hired her daughter as head of administration, and put another relative in charge of accounting.

The letter, signed by 16 staff last month, also accuses the pair of disrupting working conditions by bringing dogs to the school, and claims the two faced corruption charges in 2009 and 2012, but the ministry failed to intervene. “The ministry promised to remove the deputy head, but he is still there,” Chheng Moeun said.

Yov Khemara, director of the Preah Sihanouk labour department, said he received a copy of the complaint but did not know its progress.

Neither Labour Ministry spokesman Heng Sour, nor the institute’s Neak Narith could be reached.