Battambang province police were forced to intervene on Sunday in a scuffle over unpaid salaries between Chinese workers at a cement factory and their supervisors.

Around 100 workers from the Chinese-owned Battambang Conch Cement Company in the province’s Ratanak Mondol district protested outside the factory because they have yet to be paid their September wages, said Sorn Nil, the district’s police chief. “In the protest, violence occurred between the company manager’s supporters and representatives of the workers, causing three supervisors to be injured,” he said.

Nil said when police arrived at the scene the workers were already fighting with their supervisors, and that management had filed a complaint accusing the workers of ‘attempted murder’, but no arrests had been made as of yesterday.

Danh Engbunchan, head of the Battambang Provincial Immigration Department, said there was no basis to the attempted murder allegations and that the case was being treated as a labour dispute.

According to an administrative staffer for Conch Cement Company, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media, the company had paid the workers on time and does not owe any unpaid salaries.