Thousands of striking factory workers in Kampong Speu province blocked National Road 3 yesterday, an action they say is in response to managers not living up to their end of a deal struck in March.

Workers at the Wing Star Shoe factory – which employs about 7,000 people – walked off the job 11 days ago, asserting that their bosses broke an agreement that ended a previous strike in late March, employee Bin Srey Mom said.

“Workers blocked the road from 7am until 4pm,” Srey Mom said yesterday.

Management has yet to implement promises of 2,000 riel per day for meals, a $5 health bonus and other agreed-upon terms, she added.

But Mao Sisong, administrative manager at Wing Star, insisted that the factory had upheld its pledges to workers. An injunction filed by the factory states that employees must return to work tomorrow or be fired.

Authorities were sent to National Road 3 as workers blocked the way yesterday, but strikers refused to move, said Chek Borin, chief of the provincial labour department.

“We don’t understand why they still protest,” Borin said.

The Japanese footwear company Asics came under fire last year after two workers at Wing Star, one of its suppliers, were crushed to death when an illegally constructed storage level caused a ceiling to collapse on May 16.