Jurys Doyle Hotels in Dublin last night said it was both "shocked and disappointed" to hear about media reports alleging that cleaning workers were paid a third of the British minimum wage by a sub-contractor in one of its UK hotels.
The hotel group was responding in a statement to an undercover investigation by Sky News into the Jurys Inn in Southampton on the south coast of England. Sky News claimed that an undercover reporter received wages equating to £1.50 per hour, which is substantially less than the £5.05 minimum wage in the UK.
Jurys said last night that it has now initiated an immediate investigation to establish the truth or otherwise of the Sky News report.
This investigation is due to conclude in a matter of days and the hotel will take any action "deemed necessary as a consequence", the statement said.
Foremost Logistics Services, the subcontractor at the centre of the controversy, is not used by Jurys in its Irish hotels.
The Jurys hotel group has 10 hotels located in Ireland and 20 in the UK. It also has hotels in Boston and Washington.
In its statement last night, the hotel group said it would not under any circumstances be party to underpaying or mistreating staff.
It said that it had no prior knowledge of alleged under-payment until approached by Sky News last week.
The statement added that sub-contractors' compliance with statutory obligations was constantly monitored.
It said that any failure to comply with legislation would be regarded as a breach of contract and treated accordingly.
Yesterday's report by Sky News showed eastern European workers, many of whom spoke little English, working six hours per day cleaning rooms.
The report claimed that with workers standing to earn £1.80 per room, employees would have to clean 17 rooms per day to earn more than the average wage.
On average, most workers cleaned 12 rooms per day.
After six days working in the Southampton hotel, the undercover reporter received £58, equating to £1.50 per hour.