Open Day for Dublin Hotel Workers

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Friday February 13, 2009 15:41 by SIPTU - SIPTU ssheerin at siptu dot ie Liberty Hall, Dublin 1 01 8586300

Know Your Rights!

SIPTU is organising an Open Day for hotel workers in the ALSAA complex at Dublin airport on Wednesday, February 18th. It will be held from 1pm to 7pm and is aimed at making them more aware of their rights.

SIPTU is organising an Open Day for hotel workers in the ALSAA complex at Dublin airport on Wednesday, February 18th. It will be held from 1pm to 7pm and is aimed at making them more aware of their rights.

Hotel staff are amongst the most exploited and lowest paid workers in Ireland. Figures released by the National Employment Rights Authority last year show that its inspectors found 78 per cent of hotels were in breach of the law and NERA recouped over €329,684 in unpaid wages for staff.

Union Lead Organiser Orlagh Fawl says the Open Day is to make hotel workers more aware of their rights. “The NERA findings show that even basic legislation is being ignored, including Acts covering the national minimum wage, payment of wages, working time, rest breaks and holidays entitlements.

“These are not just statistics. Workers such as Beata, a waitress from a large hotel in Dublin told us, ‘We only recently became aware that our hotel does not pay us for Sundays or that we don’t get enough breaks’. She added that ‘workers were afraid to talk to their managers’ about problems because they were constantly told ‘the hotel was not performing well in the current economic climate’.

“In the present economic climate too many managers see the denial of employment rights as an easy way to save money. They trade on the fact that many hotel workers do not know their rights.”

“In SIPTU we feel that it is time for the public to understand that if you don’t get a smile with your service in hotels it is because the workers are exhausted”, union Organiser Sintija Sheerin says. “They are doing the job that three people used to do. In the current economic climate hotel owners and managers are understandably concerned about cutting costs, however they are doing so mainly at the expense of workers.

“Of late we have groups of hotel workers coming to SIPTU for information on their basic rights. We noticed that a lot of hotel workers are unsure of how to raise issues when things are difficult at work. This Open Day aims to make information on legal rights and entitlements accessible to hotel workers. We are inviting them to come along, get informed and meet some of their fellow-workers.”

Anyone interested in attending the open day can get there by the 16a, 33, 41, 41a and 41c bus to ALSAA.