Cambodian Airport Management Service (CAMS), of which Vinci (an airport construction and investment company) holds major shares, had been refusing to renew the collective bargaining agreement with the Cambodian Transport Workers’ Federation (CTWF) unions in the Siem Reap and Phnom Penh locations, despite their being certified as the most representative unions in January and April 2019. Negotiations had been postponed and came to a halt under COVID-19, allowing the management to impose work suspensions as of April 2020 unilaterally in all three airports without consulting the union. Many union members were targeted for terminations or early retirement, including 70 members in Phnom Penh, 21 in Siem Reap and four at Sihanoukville airport in 2020.
CAMS bypassed the union and informed staff of the retrenchment of 161 employees on 4 November 2020, 121 of whom were union members. Management only disclosed the list of retrenched workers to the unions on 24 November during a meeting with the ministry of labour. CTWF was forced to react to the retrenchment plan quickly. All furlough proposals were rejected. CAMS approached the workers individually to force them to accept the compensation package. The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has ignored the CTWF and affiliates’ accusation of CAMS’s labour law violations – violations under article 95 on collective lay-off procedure. By January 2021, Vinci had terminated 130 workers from the three airports. Source: CFDT and CGT letters to Vinci; ITUC letter to MOLVT
