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Bimbola Oyesola
The management of Lagos Airport Hotel has directed all its staff to proceed on a three-month forced leave without pay in reaction to the downturn of business due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
This is even as the organised labour has vowed to resist the action which it considered unconstitutional.
The hotel management in a letter dated 21/04/2020 and signed by Yemi Madu (Mrs), HHRA&T-LAHL, and titled to “ALL MEMBERS OF STAFF NOTICE TO GO ON THREE MONTHS STAY BACK AT HOME WITHOUT PAY,” stated that the staff should continue to stay at home for another three months.
The letter reads: “We regret to inform you of the decision of management for you to continue your stay at home after your leave for three months without pay till the company contacts you.”
According to the management, this was due to the company’s present financial crisis and its future uncertainty in this prevailing COVID-19 era.
Madu has noted that “this decision was painful and we are sorry it has to come to this but we continue to hope for the best and wish you well.”
But Hotel and Personal Services Senior Staff Association (HAPSSSA) and the National Union of Hotels and Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW) said they were not carried along in the management’s decision.
The immediate past president of HAPSSA, Ademola Adeyemi said the action of the Airport Hotel management was against the law, hence the workers were not going to abide by it.
“This is a global issue, why should the Airport Hotel take such an action. We have other hotels all over the country, who are still keeping their workers,” he said.
The labour leader queried the rationale for the Airport Hotel to keep workers away for three months, wondering if they would be the one to determine when COVID-19 will end.
Adeyemi who lamented how the workers would survive without pay for three months said the management of the hotel was just been insensitive to the workers who have given their all to the success of the organization.
He said: “How do they want the workers to survive for three months when even the March salary has not been paid since all the workers have been forced to proceed on compulsory leave.
“Where is decent work here; how do we pay our bills, feed our families and meet with other expenses?”
The former president said the decision was taken without the consultation of all the stakeholders, including the owner of the hotel, Odua Group, stating that, that was the more reason the workers would resist it.
