Staff dismissed from Conrad Rangali Island resort today gathered outside the President’s Office, demanding to meet President Mohamed Nasheed.
One of the 29 staff members protesting outside the President’s Office said he was “shocked” to have been dismissed after working for the resort for eight years.
”There were times when the situation of the resort was very poor, but I worked there because I loved working in the island,” he said. ”The management did not even consider all that when they dismissed me all of a sudden,” he added.
He said everyone dismissed had families and people to look after.
”I got the message that I was terminated from my job after playing football in the evening,” another staff member said. ”When I came back there were 15 missed calls and a text message from the management asking me to be present at the Human Resources Department.”
He said he went there and was told that he had been dismissed.
”They said they had to dismiss us due to low occupancy, but I work in a department that operates even if there were no guests at all,” he said. ”So I asked the management why they didn’t dismiss persons from the departments that have no work during the low season.”
He claimed the dismissal was due to a strike they held at the resort on March 23.
”We went on a strike over some issues regarding the service charge, but a whole force of police arrived in full riot gear, with pepper spray and tear gas, and ended our strike,” he said .”But we strike because it is a right. We were terminated for demanding our rights, and now we have to beg on the streets.”
He called on the parliament to “pave the way” for the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the constitution.
”All the MPs do is go to parliament, shout at each other, climb up their desks and go home,” he said. ”Little children in our house have seen them do that and have started behaving like them.”
He noted that the resort’s management had paid the dismissed staff all the allowances as required in their employment agreement.
Conrad Rangali meanwhile confirmed that the management had decided to make 29 positions in the island redundant.
”Conrad Maldives Rangali Island confirms that due to the partial closure of its guest rooms for renovation and lower occupancies during the traditional low season in the Maldives, it has made 29 positions redundant,” the resort said in a statement.
”The redundancies affect only a small number of staff and the resort has offered generous redundancy payments to provide affected team members with financial support while they search for alternative employment.”
The resort also said it ”will not affect service levels at the resort in any way and the ratio of staff-to-guests will remain at a minimum of two members of staff to each guest room.”
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It thats the conrad reasons than its good caz otherwise they may have to redundant many more people in the future.
Really need to get progressive income tax to subsidize wages for these guys and also, bring more winnable "unfair dismisaal rules"
yes! Government need to find out why this happened.
it seemed very unlikely Hilton would redundant staff due to the low occupancy or any accuse. and some of them are worked for long long time. management they can't just terminate.
if Government didn't take this seriously, in future all the resorts will practice same again.
the way resort workers go about this is wrong...they go to strike too easily and could be damaging to any business. a strike should come when all other means are exhausted. i dont think this was the case. there need to be a special section in tourism ministry where resort workers can make complaints to avoid such things in future...
Hi Dud this isn't the problems of any section is missing from the Tourism Ministry ... ! this is the problem against the staff and the management of particulier Resorts.
Questions is How much the Human Rights commission can take it?
Questions : does any body can stand against the Resort Owners.
Answer is very easy isn't it! Government or even any independent body ... so far they 're failed. think about what has been happened with Reethi Rai incident.
Resort owner made a call to whoever!
within half an hour Police came with riot gear and tear gas. dismiss the crowd.
and the following day or week after they'd all of them have been terminated. Government has done nothing to investigate. Government is with the Resort Owners.
No one can do anything that would ruine they're business.
Someone needs to closely watch this resort. If they replace the sacked staff, then they ought to be dragged into an appropriate legal battle for unfair dismissal. I'm pretty certain they'll be very secretive about this, but they most certainly will replace those staff! This isn't a simple case of redundancy due to the low tourist season; something a little more sinister is going on.
Employment law is currently totally one sided with little or no protection for employees. I bet the resort will promptly replace the locals with expatriate labour. The expats can be treated as the management please.
There needs to be at least one good case of unfair dismissal brought infront of the Courts. Then, employers will have to be more cautious in their labour practices.
The question to be asked here is weather the staff were dismissed as stated in their contract and the law? Weather they have been compensated? And weather the hotel maintains the local/ expatriate workers ratio. If the answer to all these questions is yes, these guys should be looking for jobs instead of trying to meet the president! If the answer to any of the questions is no then legal action should be taken against the hotel!
I'm sure a reputable brand such as hilton would not fire staff just like that without considering consequences and legality of such dismissal.
We all must learn to read between the lines. And not every single issue in this country should be resolved by protesting in front of the president's office.
This country is becoming too small for democracy to be taken seriously. A hotelier can no longer fire it's staff without fearing a protest in front of presidents office?
There are labor tribunals and ministries to file such complains. Shame on you Conrad staff for your childish and immature behavior that's putting this whole democracy thing to the brink of intolerance.
why only Maldivians are terminated. why not expatriate ? when there is renovation , why there is staff recreation and sports manager post. i think management has to think about Maldivians future before terminating. why there is doctor post when there is no guest , it is absolutely not necessary to spend on 3000 usd for doctor, instead they can employ three Maldivian staff trained in first aid since there is no work for doctor.
Hey guy's,
I would say that the resort needs to have a employee recreation and sports manager, and Doctor, to look after the rest of the staff and guest in order to maintain the same fasilities for it's Staff and guest.
The staff's who are beed dismissed, need to behave in a proper way and act as adults, not like children...
Also if the staffs who are been dismissed are very poor and don't have the money to look after the family why can't they go and look for job's in order to keep their families in good shap, insterd of protestion infront of President office.
Also they need to understant that the president will not have time when ever there is a dismiss or termination fron Employer.
the downside of globalization. a huge multinational corporation (hilton) vs a third world developing nation. i am willing to bet that no domestic law will change due to this, hilton will get away with it scot free, and there will be nothing the poor dismissed employees can do about it... sad but the truth.
Mr.carsten ( GM of Conrad ) is a very good friend of the President,so does all hoteliers.its not the point.the point is that patience and wisdom can bring prospect and progress.what i'm going to state here is that whenever the employees feels that it is necessary to go on strike or whatever reason,let it happen in a responsible manner.
"Tourism industry provides most jobs for local economy and this industry can still provide more opportunities by quota adjustment by profession. Currently the situation is that almost any number of foreign workers for any position can be employed for any length of time. Apart from a requirement that 50%ratio of expats to locals workers need to be maintained (even which is not a hard or fast rule!) there is no more encouragement for employing local workers."
http://maldivesresortworkers.wordpress.com/
Read all of your guys and comments about 29 people and Conrad.The opinions, suggestion, nonsense etc... This government had fulled your pockets in an write against that 29 people was terminated without any notice.29 people agreed there payments had been sen to the bank accounts without there knowledge, that means no signature nothing witch should be signed by us before sending.Talking about Carsten and president relationship we just don't give any damn thing.You guys give a support to him in making so many low occupancy program with him.He can tell what ever he likes to our religion and he is trying to make us has his slave.Ask him to remind about the days when you were in sri lanka,how he was treated by sri lankan's his own stff's.Sacked him and was thrown into a dark room,luckly one person saved him and that person is restaurant manager.THINK TWICE WHEN U COMMENT ABOUT A PERSON WHO DOES NOT RESPECT OUR CULTURE AND OUR RELIGION.Penalty should be deported from Maldives until further notice