Setback for workers as top hotels close then reopen

The closure of the Burlington and other high-profile hotels in Dublin represents a major setback for the working conditions of hundreds of employees in the hospitality industry, Siptu's general president Jack O'Connor warned yesterday.

He said that a number of high-profile hotels such as Jurys and the Berkeley Court have closed over the past year, only to be reopened with new staff on lesser pay.

"To be accurate these are not so much closures as 'rollovers', followed by reopenings with new staff on poorer pay and conditions," Mr O'Connor said.

"What the hotels and tourism sector throws into particularly sharp relief is the contrast between the race to the top in terms of accumulating profits, and the race to the bottom in terms of driving down pay and conditions for those generating those profits."

The former Jurys Hotel has since reopened as the Ballsbridge Inn, while the Towers and the Berkeley Court have also been reopened as the Ballsbridge Towers and the Ballsbridge Court.

These hotels occupy a site owned by property developer Seán Dunne, who is seeking planning permission for a major high-rise development.

There is no confirmation yet that the Burlington, which has been sold to developer and construction magnate Bernard McNamara, will reopen.

Mr O'Connor said that people who have given long and loyal service in some hotels were losing their jobs, only to be replaced by more vulnerable workers who were often employed through labour agencies on significantly inferior terms and conditions.

He said the erosion of terms and conditions for workers in the hospitality industry had long-term consequences for the rest of society.

"The most immediate of these is the loss of well-paid jobs, established skills and potential skills development in a key sector of the Irish economy," Mr O'Connor claimed.

"As with global warming and inflation, there is a lot of talk about our skills deficit but developments on the ground are increasingly in the opposite direction," he said.

Mr O'Connor said that there was no thought given to the consequences of "driving down" pay and conditions, as well as skills and standards, in the sector of our economy that most directly engages with tourists and business travellers.

"This is the Ireland of 2008 - a country in which, as the ESRI has at last acknowledged, migrant workers earn on average 15 per cent less than their Irish counterparts and, in the case of those from Eastern Europe, 30 per cent less," Mr O'Connor said.

A total of almost 450 employees will be made redundant following the closure of the Burlington later today.

Established in 1972, the hotel has been operated by Jurys Doyle since 1999.