HotelWorkers.org.uk

Mr Gray has written................................

"Following your article recently concerning Hyatt Regency London, The Churchill, the article totally misrepresents the facts of the situation which were explained very clearly to Unite and indeed accepted and acknowledged by their representative before the publication of this misleading article.

We apologise for the cancellation of the February 2nd, 2009 branch meeting. This is the first cancelled meeting in over 10 years."

The decision was taken because of the "severe weather warning" issued by the Met. Office and the advice given to people to avoid travelling wherever possible.

Employee appeal meetings were heard on Thursday 15th January,2009 to discuss the "axe the trolley" demand of the Hyatt Churchill. Mr Eric Weber, Resident Manager, represented the Hyatt. Housekeeping employees were told that there would be no discussion of the plan to get rid of the trolleys because...."removing the trolleys no longer forms part of the proposed changes".

The Hyatt had proposed getting rid of the trolleys because "they do not look nice in the corridors".

More than one senior figure working at the Kensington Close Hotel has now confirmed that an anonymous letter was sent to both Colas Hotels and Central Agency. This was why the agency lost the housekeeping contract at three hotels within the Colas Hotels group.

The letter was apparently sent in the first week of December, 2008. The agency contract finishes on 31st January, 2009.

Officials from the Borders Agency have been seen in all three London hotels within the Colas Hotels group recently.

BBC London in their main 6.30 local bulletin on Wednesday 7th January ran an undercover story where one of their reporters had filmed irregular Romanian workers who worked for Central Agency on false papers.

A Romanian room attendant admitted to camera that she was working on false Portuguese papers for which she had paid £190. The agency said that they had been "scammed". Colas Hotels are now taking the contract back in-house from 1st February, 2009.

We are investigating what actually happened and will report on this matter by the week ending 18th January.

Housekeepers at all three of Colas Hotels, including the Kensington Close Hotel(KCH), are to go through a Transfer and Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) procedure and be taken "In House" by the Colas group.

We are not sure yet why this is happening. Did the agency resign or did Colas Hotels make the decision? No doubt we will find out shortly.

For members of the Housekeeping Department at the KCH this will be the 5th TUPE transfer in 6 years and their 6th employer in 6 years.

From 2002 their employers have been.......
* SixContinents/Forte
* Colas Hotels

On 10th August, 2008 10 Polish room attendants employed by Central Hotel Facilities, the agency responsible for Housekeeping at the Kensington Close Hotel, walked out in protest at being paid less than the National Minimum Wage(NMW).

A collective grievance was heard on 29th August, 2008. The grievance centred around the fact that the room attendants, who were paid on the "piece work NMW rate", could not earn money when there were no rooms available for them to clean.

Central said they should be paid for this time. However Central have refused to reply to our members, despite reminders.

In January 2009 the Hyatt Churchill propose to do away with the use of trolleys by room attendants at the Hotel. The Hyatt say that the room attendants can use two hand held baskets to carry in clean linen and carry out dirty linen and that the number of rooms cleaned will be reduced from 13 rooms daily to 12 rooms daily.

Room attendants in the hotel are united in opposition to this change.

The request for a collective grievance for union members of the Churchill housekeeping department continues. The hotel wishes to have 30 individual hearings to push through the changes. The union says that this is a collective change and should be negotiated collectively. Any one persons agreement/disagreement will affect the remainder of the department.

Union members are meeting on Saturday 15th November to discuss the matter and what action should be taken to counter their allegations of "bullying and intimidation".

Q......What is the London Living Wage (LLW)?
A...... The LLW is calculated annually by the Mayor of London's GLA Economics department. Both Labour Mayor Ken Livingstone and Tory Mayor Boris Johnstone have given their support for the payment of the LLW to hotel workers.

Q.....How is the LLW worked out every year?
A.....GLA Economics use a living costs method developed by the Family Budget Unit at York University. This works out the minimum acceptable standard of living for "typical London families".