Hotel staff say they will continue with picket until they are reinstated

HOUSEKEEPING STAFF in dispute with a major hotel operator in Dublin over cuts to the minimum wage say they are determined to continue picketing until they are reinstated in their jobs.

The five women, all foreign nationals, refused to sign new contracts with management at the Davenport Hotel, one of the O’Callaghan group, which would have reduced their wages from €8.65 an hour by almost €1 an hour.

Management said the wage cuts were in line with the €1 reduction in the national minimum wage which came into effect on February 1st. The five women were taken off the roster three weeks ago when they refused to sign the new contracts. They have not been paid since.

Forty other members of staff at the hotel have signed the new contracts, although these are not members of Siptu, the trade union which placed the pickets.

The hearing of a High Court injunction against the picket has been adjourned until Tuesday. A temporary injunction was granted to Persian Properties, owners of O’Callaghan Hotels, by Ms Justice Mary Laffoy on Tuesday limiting the number of picketers to six at a time.

Among those on the picket yesterday was Raisa Jonaitiene from Lithuania, who has worked at the hotel for three years. “I work from 8am until 4pm. It is very tiring work. I must clean 15 rooms a day, big king-size beds, bring the laundry to be cleaned, wash the bathrooms with bleach. It is very heavy work. I have a sore back and arms from the work,” she said.

Speaking through an interpreter, she said all accommodation staff had been called to a meeting at the start of February and told to sign the new contracts.

“Then at a second meeting they brought the sheets for us to sign and said if we didn’t sign we would be taken off the roster. Only we five girls didn’t sign and the next day we were off the roster.”

She said the workers had not been offered translation facilities and had not been allowed to take the new contracts away to have them translated before signing them.

“They told us they had to make the pay lower to help the Government.” She and her four colleagues then went to Siptu who tried to negotiate on their behalf.

Siptu official Pat Ward said he wrote to management seeking a meeting to discuss the new contracts. “Our letters were simply ignored so we were left with no choice but to ballot for strike action and place the pickets.”

O’Callaghan Hotels was not available to comment last night.