La Palm Royal Beach Hotel staff resume work after assurances over unpaid salaries

Disgruntled employees of the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra, on Monday, July 27, agreed to resume work after protesting against management over poor conditions of service and unpaid salaries.

The workers arrived at the decision after a two-hour long meeting between executives of the Industrial Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress, members of the hotel’s local union and a rep from the Hotel’s management board.

The staff, numbering about 100, stopped working on Monday morning to demand payment of their salaries and better working conditions.

Addressing the staff after the meeting which agreed immediate payment of salary arrears for 2020, that is June and July, followed by that of May-December 2019, a Deputy General Secretary in charge of Operations at the ICU, Morgan Ayawine, said the arrears will be paid soon.

The Principal Industrial Relations Officer for the Industrial Workers Union (ICU), Odelia Sowu, in an attempt to calm the aggrieved workers down, assured them that discussions were underway to address all their concerns.

“We’ve started a very long haul in the area of our negotiations for the June salary and we appreciate the fact that today [Monday] being the 27th of July, we have not yet received our June salary. We want to acknowledge the fact that as employees, we are also having some challenges. You have families back at home that you need to care for and without salaries, it’s becoming a challenge, so in view of this, we have taken a second look at the overall negotiation process.”

“The good news is that approval has been given for the payment of 50%. What is outstanding now is the July salary so we’ll also open up discussions on it. Now that we’ve been able to come to a conclusion, kindly go back to your respective job roles and we’ll see the way forward,” she assured the aggrieved workers.

In October 2018, staff of the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel laid down their tools in a similar protest over salary arrears. They were also demanding the dismissal of the then newly appointed CEO, Abena Pokua Boaitey Amoah, over allegations of incompetence.