Tourism official slams management of some hotels amid wave of staff protests

By Clinton McGregor    

 

Senior Strategist in the Ministry of Tourism Delano Seiveright has slammed the management of some local hotels for the wave of strike actions which are threatening the country's tourism brand.

 

Hundreds of hotel workers have been staging almost weekly strikes to protest low wages and poor working conditions.

 

Speaking on Radio Jamaica's weekly news review programme, That's a Wrap, on Sunday, Mr. Seiveright called for the hotels to improve their communication with their workers on matters relating to their welfare. 

 

"That is important because you cannot run an establishment with 1,000-1,500 workers, and they are not being informed on a daily basis or on as frequent a basis as possible as to what is happening with their compensation, what is happening with allowances, what is happening as it relates to some of them feeling overworked because of the labour shortages that exist in the sector. That was probably in the top three most important reasons why we had such stability in the last several weeks," he asserted. 

 

Mr. Seiveright disclosed that the government is holding talks with stakeholders in the hotel sector to move away from Fixed Term Contracts which have been a sore point for hotel employees.

 

The workers complain that they have been denied benefits and security of tenure under the current contractual arrangements.

 

"A number of companies - I can't call their names for obvious reasons - have said...we are putting arrangements in place to move away from it for certain categories of work. One major group is already reworking their contractual arrangements, and we are expecting in the coming weeks to see those changes for a number of workers in the sector. And we are also seeing that the number of companies implementing salary increases that have already either got into effect or they're going into effect in the coming weeks," he said.  

 

Mr. Seiveright added that there are plans to improve housing and other benefits for hotel workers.

 

Several of the island's major trade unions are seeking to represent workers in the hotel sector. 

 

Meanwhile, the tourism strategist admitted that overseas tour operators and travel agents have been expressing concern about the protests, but he said bookings for the winter tourist season are encouraging.

 

"I think many of them are now satisfied that the issues in the main are being addressed. There are still issues that, up to this morning, I have personally been on phone calls with some members of the sector, as well as some concerns and specific areas within their operations, working through those issues as best as we possibly can.... [But] the winter tourist season is looking very strong right now, our numbers are looking very good, our hotels are reporting reasonably high occupancy rates," he insisted.