By Evie Andreou
SOME 150 staff working at hotels entangled in a bitter dispute between the owners and the receiver, marched in Larnaca yesterday, demanding they be paid their wages for the past two months and be left out of the legal dispute that has resulted in all payments being frozen.
In all, 400 people work at ten properties operated by the new Marismare hotel company and Aqua Sol Hotels, presently under receivership.
The dispute lies in which company has the right to collect dues owed by travel agents and the employees marched from Aqua Sol’s Sun Hall hotel on the Phinikoudes beachfront to the Marismare offices demanded they be paid their salaries, as well as benefits owed from last year, and that their employers pay all social insurance, provident fund and health fund contributions.
Aqua Sol, owner and operator of 15 hotels in Cyprus, Rhodes and Crete, along with its nine subsidiaries was placed under receivership last month for its failure to comply with its contractual obligations with the Bank of Cyprus.
According to news sources, Marismare was established before Aqua Sol was placed under receivership and eight of Aqua Sol’s hotels were transferred to the new company allegedly owned exclusively by the wife of Aqua Sol’s boss.
Reportedly, bank-appointed receiver Eleftherios Philippou was refused entry to the company’s offices and that he was not aware of Marismare’s existence until he received an email from a travel agent suggesting Aqua Sol’s manager was seeking direct payment into the Marismare account.
Andreas Zacharias, general secretary of the Famagusta hotel employees’ PEO branch said that the employees’ patience has worn out.
“We demand that the employees are left out of the dispute between the receiver and the employers and that arrangements are made so that employees are paid on time,” he said.
Zacharias warned that if a solution is not found, actions will be escalated.
Yiorgos Karas of the SEK union hotel employees’ branch added that there are people who cannot afford to buy food or fill–up their cars to go to work.
He said that the last meetings with the employers did not end well and that they hoped their protest and the Labour ministry’s involvement would bring the desired results.
The unions are to meet today with the mediation service of the Labour ministry.
Sun Hall and Vangelis in Larnaca are under Aqua Sol management, while Aqua Sol Tourist Village, Akteon and Eleni in Paphos, Panthea, Callisto, Electra and Panas in Ayia Napa and Panteleia in Protaras are under Marismare.
