[PHNOM PENH POST]
Angkor beer promoters will meet again this afternoon with city officials
mediating the dispute between them and their employer, as pressure
mounts on Carlsberg to bring an equitable end to a dispute over $2 of
daily overtime.
Carlsberg, which owns half of Angkor beer brewer
Cambrew, had received letters from unions in Denmark, where it is based,
and international lab-our federations that were “appalled by
Carlsberg’s behaviour in Cambodia”, Mora Sar, president of the Cambodia
Food Workers’ Association, told the Post yesterday.
“Carlsberg is
concerned about its image and how the strike in Cambodia affects it,”
Mora Sar said. Reports about the strike, which has been suspended until
Thursday, also began appearing in the Danish media last week.
The
175 million-strong International Trade Union Confederation has urged
Carlsberg “to act now to ensure that women workers are treated with the
respect and dignity they deserve, and have the protection they so
clearly need”.
In an August 4 letter to Carlsberg’s chief
executive, the confederation said it was “deeply concerned about the
degrading conditions in which beer promoters work. They are subjected to
constant sexual harassment by customers and are under intense pressure
to consume alcohol”.
The confederation homed in on Cambrew’s
refusal to implement a judgment by the Arbit-ration Council that sided
with the beer promoters’ claim that they were entitled to overtime for
working on Sundays.
“Cambrew has to date failed to honour that
judgment. Certainly, Carlsberg would not ignore the judgment of a Danish
tribunal,” it said.
Sar Mora and representatives of the
strikers will meet this afternoon with city officials who agreed last
week to mediate the dispute.
Beer promoter Yeong Sreymom said
city officials were trying to resolve the dispute because Cambrew feared
their strike would spread.
Ian Lubec, a Canadian academic who
has been researching the beer industry in Cambodia for 12 years, said
the suspension of the strike gave Cambrew “one week to bring about an
equitable solution or allow Carlsberg to get its PR machine rolling”.
Sara Mora said several of the women who had returned to work had been shifted to less lucrative venues.
Instead
of returning to busy restaurants and beer gardens, they had been
relocated to nightspots with few customers and far lower sales
commissions, he said. “They are being punished for striking.’’
Carlsberg declined to comment yesterday.
No comments:
Post a Comment