Workers of Lagoonda hotel and The Hub Resort in the Western Area Urban district have expressed grave concerns over what they described as “neglect” and “deletion” of their names from the list of government bailout package of the targeted 2,363 registered employees in the hotel and hospitality sector. It can be recalled that President Julius Maada Bio during the launch of the sector’s Social Safety Net confirmed that his government had allocated Le4,883,840,000 in support aimed at covering three months lost work time for the 2,363 sector workers that were affected by job losses due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Akin Gibril Ernest Robert, Hub Resort staff, said they were among the first set of workers in the hotel sector to be affected by the coronavirus after two of their guests, cases 6 and 7, were confirmed COVID-19 positive. He said from then to date they have been on adjusted work time and resized salaries, and alleged that based on gathered information their names were never included on the general lists used by government for the bailout payment. Robert said though they informed management of their situation, they were told to check with their employment firms as everything dealing with employment and payment should be channeled to the said firms and not directly to them.
He said that was what prompted them to check with the payment team to verify their statuses. Hassan Kargbo (not his real name) of Lagoonda said as per assigned dates from the disbursement team to them, their hotel staff were expected to be paid on Monday based on their numbers; however, over the past three days they have not received any calls or notifications from neither their manager nor the payment team. He said the decision was reached by all of them to visit the payment site for verification especially after they learnt that payment for Western Area will end yesterday 18th August 2020.
Kargbo said their investigation has revealed that their names were not captured under Lagoonda or Cape Leisure Hotel as only 12 out of the over 200 staff from their establishment were paid. He said the past months have been difficult for them and their families and they were expecting to benefit from the package to solve certain family issues. The fact that their names are not captured on the general list is worrisome, he added. One of the managers at Cape Leisure who pleaded anonymity said they were contacted by management to prepare the lists for all staff of the establishment, which they did and submitted. This person said there are more than 200 workers at Lagoonda, but to the best of their knowledge only 12 people were paid the Le1,800,000 which by far is not commensurate to the available number of workers.
The Director of Tourism, Mohamed Jalloh, said the past days have been successful with little issues. Verification and confirmation of names by Lagoonda workers he said can be addressed. He said the big issue resulted from Lagoonda management’s failure to submit the full list of all their workers, adding the establishment has lots of other smaller units including the Mamba Point, the Games King, Games World, and Cape Leisure. Jalloh said they received names for only one unit leaving the remaining smaller entities citing it as the reason they were not serviced on the first and second days of payment.
He said they were informed of this oversight when the workers came to verify their names to team, and assured that their issues among others were noted for onward submission to the complaints committee. The Director of Tourism said when the committee meets today on late submission of names and verifications, their decision will be communicated to the beneficiaries and they will receive their full packages due them. On The Hub Resort issue, he confirmed receiving their list, and though it was late, their issue will be addressed and regularised by the committee after the meeting.
The Manager for Sierra Palms Resort, Syed Ahmed Javad, said though his workers have been visiting the payment site at Radisson Blu to get their payment, they are yet to receive it. He said they submitted the names of their employees as requested but were only recently informed the said list had not been received by government. The Deputy Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, William Robinson, said they received the Lagoonda list on 17th August 2020 after months of reminders for all establishments to submit. He called for patience for government to complete payments to the verified.
The Deputy Minister encouraged the workers to go home and wait to hear from them, promising that those whose names were not on the lists will receive payment verification. He said they will receive Le1,800,000 for them and their families, and not for anyone demanding facilitation fees, adding they should report any form of corruption to the appropriate authorities.
By Mohamed Kabba