More than 20 Angkor Beer promoters yesterday protested in front of their company’s headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Por Sen Chey district to demand better working conditions.

The protesters, speaking on behalf of Angkor’s 300 female promoters, decried the company’s decision to change their shifts from 2 to 9pm to 3:30 to 11pm, and alleged that Angkor did not give them mandatory bonuses for working late.

“We are all women. We work late at night. It is dangerous,” said Pov Sinat, one of the protesting promoters. “We need the company to stop it.”

Ou Tepphallin, the deputy head of the Cambodian Food and Service Workers Federation, said that according to the law, workers must be paid extra wages for every hour worked later than 10pm, and companies are not allowed to force unwilling workers to work late into the night.

The demonstrators also blasted Angkor’s use of six-month contracts, saying these should be replaced with longer, more secure agreements.

“We need more than these short contracts,” said Tith Saren, another protester.

Ngieb Chheng Leab, the chief of administration at Angkor Beer, said that the company already agreed to talk about the promoters’ demands.

“We told the protesters already that we will meet them to discuss a solution on Monday, but they did not understand. They still come to protest,” he said.