More than 100 teachers in Preah Vihear province’s Rovieng district say they are being cheated on overtime pay and bonuses for teaching in remote areas and are urging the local Department of Education, Youth and Sport to do something about it.

Six representatives of three Rovieng district high schools said yesterday they had not been paid the extra sums for two school terms.

A teacher from the district who declined to be named said his overtime salary amounted to about $15 a week, and the rural-area bonus roughly equated to an extra $1.50 a week depending on the level of work.

He said that since 2011, he had been paid those figures for only four months.

“We want to write a letter to superiors, but we don’t dare because we are afraid of pressure in the future,” he said.

Pov Lyheang, director of Chea Sim Tbeng Meanchey, confirmed that teachers were owed overtime for two terms, but although he sent documents to superiors, they had not replied.

Noan Bora, chief of accounting at the Department of Education, Youth and Sport office for Preah Vihear, blamed the delay on directors at the high schools who, he said, had been late in sending in pay slips for overtime.

But Rong Chhun, president of the Cambodian Independent Teachers’ Association, disputed this, claiming non-payment was a recurring problem and that overtime slips were always sent in on time.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kim Sarom at [email protected]