Plan to step up action against Galway hotel

Date Published: {J}

Staff at the Carlton Hotel have begun industrial action this week with a more serious escalation promised over the coming days unless a resolution with management over the outsourcing of the accounts department is reached.

Workers staged a four-hour protest on Wednesday before mounting an all-out picket for three hours yesterday. Senior managers who are not union members manned the desk and phones while the strike took place so that guests continued to receive service.

Staff involved in the food service ensured that a party attending a funeral were fully looked after before they walked out, according to deputy shop steward John Palmer.

However, they will not be so cooperative in future strike action if the management continue their refusal to come to the table with a reasonable agreement, he insisted.

And with Christmas functions booked in over the coming weeks that could prove disastrous for the business.

“We’re not out to destroy the business but we have to increase our action until they agree to negotiate a fair settlement. The staff don’t want to be at the gate, all they’re looking for is the owners to do the right thing,” Mr Palmer said.

Two meetings have taken place betwee

n the union and management but very little progress was made.

The union is pushing for three staff members to be reinstated or to be given 7.5 weeks per year of service. Of the five workers in the now defunct accounts department, one was let go earlier and the other is not a union member.

“These workers were literally sacked for doing nothing wrong. They were told to get up from their desks and  leave the building within  five minutes. One of  the women said it was like being hit by a train straight into the chest,” remarked Mr Palmer.

Carlton Hotel General Manager Siobhán Burke said in a statement the decision was not an easy one for management “not least because of the devastating personal effects on the staff directly involved”, but it was deemed necessary to protect the long term viability of the business.

A company called Lark Marsh Holdings – owned by a South Galway family involved in construction – own the hotel, which was formerly Days.