The Raffles hotel chain dispute is finally over?
The dispute began in 2003 over the service charge, which the Cambodian Arbitration Council has now ruled should be divided among the staff (see ALUs passim), but which Raffles managers had kept for the company for years.

The agreement was made between the local union branches of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation (CTSWF) and management of the Raffles Le Royal (Phnom Penh) and Raffles Grand Hotel Angkor (Siem Riep) on 12 September, assisted by the global union federation for food and allied trades, the IUF.
One element of the agreement guarantees that most sacked union members will be given priority when the hotels begin recruiting again.

The hotel fired 209 striking union workers on 17 April, accusing them of ignoring a Siem Reap court’s ruling that ordered them to return to work. Pat Sambo, the president of the Grand Hotel d’Angkor union, said he did not like the final decision as it did not allow all workers to return to their jobs.

Raffles also agreed to recognise the CTSWF as the representative union; management had created a yellow union earlier in the dispute in typical union-busting style to avoid contact with the proper legal representative union, the CTSWF.

The Solidarity Center, the representative offices abroad of the US’ AFL-CIO national trade union centre, was also involved in the dispute along with the IUF, with both groups organising an international campaign, publicised by the online workers information centre, LabourStart. The international campaign undoubtedly had a great impact on the Raffles management, which was at first reacted with a high-handed attitude to the workers’ claim.
As ALU goes to press it is not clear how the service charge will be disbursed and which workers will not be allowed back to work and why.

IUF bulletin, 15 September 2004; Cambodia Daily, 13 August 2004