After two months without receiving their salaries, the national staff at the Khmer Rouge tribunal is again threatening to go on strike, court spokesman Neth Pheaktra said yesterday, adding that the pay freeze since May had affected everyone “from drivers to judges”.
Pheaktra went on to say, via email, that there had been no new promised donations to the court’s national side.
“It is a new challenge for [the] national side. All national staff continues to work for two more weeks.... if no solution, some of them may decide to take temporary leave until ... a solution [is reached],” he said.
“The court will face the new boycott from the staff and of course, it will affect to the ECCC’[s] work ... on legal affairs, IT and especially [the Interpretation and Translation Unit].”
The court’s national side has long been chronically under-funded, and an earlier strike in March severely hampered court proceedings for two weeks, but ended when a portion of workers’ back salaries were finally paid.
