THE CYPRUS Hoteliers Association (PASYXE) yesterday hit back at SEK trade union’s claims that hotels in Paphos were implementing a policy of firing Cypriot employees in favour of using cheaper EU labour.
Neophytos Xenofontos, the Paphos district secretary for SEK claimed 10 hotels in the town had sent redundancy letters to dozens of their Cypriot employees just ahead of the start of the summer season. He also claimed that procedures were underway to employ EU workers in their place.
But Evripides Loizides, a spokesman for the Cyprus Hoteliers Association (PASYXE) told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “The information Mr. Xenofontos gave out was incorrect and I had a two hour meeting with him following his claims.”
Loizides confirmed that three hotels in Paphos, perhaps four, had been contemplating cutting staff to ensure survival, but that no decisions had yet been made.
Two of the three Paphos hotels which are contemplating staff cuts are not members of PASYXE, and one is a well established large hotel, which, according to Loizides, is experiencing problems with their bank.
“One hotel in particular had considered making 20 employees redundant and employing EU nationals as a cheaper option for them. This form of crisis management is wrong at any time, especially at the start of the tourist season,” he said.
“I want to make it clear that PASYXE does not agree that this is the way to cope with the terrible situation in Paphos. These hoteliers are acting out of desperation.”
Paphos has been worst hit by the global financial crisis of all the towns in Cyprus as its economy is reliant on tourism and construction as the main sources of income.
Loizides said that putting all of the hotels ‘in the same hat’ was unhelpful.
“These are isolated incidents. In the last three years, statistics show that incentives provided by the government have meant that Paphos hotels have employed a lot of young unemployed with degrees. These are facts.”
In the last three years six hotels have employed more than 160 young Cypriot graduates and “got them started in the industry”, he added.
“I have already spoken to the hotels in question and they haven’t taken any action yet. We hope they will find ways to compromise. But if not, they will have to give proper compensation to these employees; they will not get away with it.”
