Capital hotel and events group promises all staff full pay for three months

Surgeons Quarter, the Edinburgh hospitality business, has committed to paying all of its staff in full for at least the next three months, amid concerns of the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the hotel sector.

The commercial arm of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, which puts its profits back into the institution, pledged to uphold full pay for its 76 salaried and contracted workers until June.

The business operates some of the capital’s busiest event venues as well as several hotels. It has also offered the use of its four-star Ten Hill Place hotel free of charge to all key clinical and medical workers at Edinburgh’s hospitals, and has signalled its willingness to the Chief Medical Officer for the hotel to be adopted by the health service should hospitals overflow.

MD Scott Mitchell said: “In these uncertain and rapidly changing times, it is absolutely essential that we stand behind our workforce and give them financial certainty.

“When we come out the other end of this current situation we will need all of our team to be ready to regrow our business and I, the company and the college will do everything in our power to avoid cutting our workforce.”

The firm has now moved to add discretionary sick pay at full pay levels for staff required to self-isolate for either the seven or 14-day period.

The update from Surgeons Quarter comes shortly after it was revealed that staff at Coylumbridge

Hotel in the Highlands had been sacked and told to leave their accommodation immediately, with the company pinning the decision on government coronavirus advice.

Hospitality is expected to be among the industries most heavily hit by the outbreak as authorities advise against travel and encourage social distancing.