Hundreds of jobs set to go from plush city hotels
Union begs group to reconsider staff cuts
THERE is growing anger amid claims two plush hotels in Glasgow will cut nearly 400 workers. Union bosses have accused chiefs at The Blythswood Hotel and The Grand Central Hotel of “bulldozing” through plans to lose 382 jobs.
Unite claim the International Hotel Group (IHG), which runs the two flagship sites in Blythswood Square and Gordon Street, are pushing through “complicated” proposals during an ongoing consultation with staff.
As well as demanding all documents provided to workers are sent in their native language, including in Polish, Romanian, and Latvian, the union has submitted a collective proposal urging the company to consider any other option to cut costs rather than people.
Bryan Simpson, industrial organiser at Unite, said: “The Intercontinental Hotel Group is one of the biggest and richest hotel chains in the World, having made £386million in clear profit last year alone.
“To sack up to 80 per cent of their workforce in flagship hotels that they know will be opening up in the coming months is outrageous and possibly unlawful because we have a perfectly reasonable alternative called the Job Retention Scheme.
“The way in which the redundancy consultations have been carried out thus at their flagship Glasgow hotels – The Grand Central and The Blythswood – have been neither genuine nor meaningful.
“They are bulldozing our members with very complex legal documents which have not even been translated into relevant languages for their large migrant workforce.
“Our members across IHG shall be putting forward their own alternative proposals to such devastating compulsory redundancies which include voluntary redundancies, annualised hour contracts and extended leave.”
The hotels, like others, have had to temporarily close due to Covid-19 with hundreds of staff placed on furlough.
Within Unite’s proposals – which were sent to IHG bosses yesterday –workers say they would be open to a number of measures to help the company cut costs.
This includes taking on alternative contracts, extended leave, or even career breaks.
The loss of jobs was blasted by Aamer Anwar, a leading human rights lawyer, who wrote on Twitter: “Disgraceful and cynical treatment of workers by the Blythswood and other luxury hotels in Glasgow – firing hundreds on mass.”
A spokesperson from IHG said: “This is a very difficult time for our industry, we haven’t seen an impact on demand for hotels like this in our lifetime with travel restrictions, social distancing measures, closed borders and the cancellation of major sporting events, business conferences and family occasions.
“We have done everything to protect and retain jobs for as long as possible. Our IHG managed hotels in Scotland are currently closed and while we are looking forward to welcoming guests back when we can reopen, it will take time for travel and tourism to return to pre-coronavirus levels. As a result, we have launched a consultation to resize and restructure our hotel teams, which unfortunately is likely to involve some redundancies.”
They are bulldozing our members