SIPTU members employed at the Nuremore Hotel and Country Club in Carrickmacross, county Monaghan, have demanded the payment of their outstanding wages and clarification on the future of their workplace, following a social media statement posted yesterday (Thursday, 9th February), that its Leisure Centre is closing. SIPTU Organiser, Claire O’Connor, said: “SIPTU members employed in the Leisure Centre have not been paid wages for the last three weeks. Yesterday the management of the Leisure Centre posted on social media that it was closing permanently today. This abrupt closure has left them locked out of their workplace facing uncertainty about the future of their employment. “All workers employed in the hotel facility were laid off 41 days ago with 44 days remaining until their scheduled return to work as stated in a company letter. All their wages and money for leave entitlements owed prior to Christmas remain outstanding. The Leisure Centre employee remained working until today.” She added: “This a despicable way of treating workers and their families. It is totally unacceptable and the Government needs to step up to the plate and investigate the owners of this company without any further delay.” Nuremore Hotel and Country Club worker, Tom Rowley, said: “The workers are sick to their teeth of the inconsistency and irregularity in the manner they are being treated when all they are seeking is their basic right to be paid. No worker should be left for weeks without wages. In addition, it is unacceptable that the so called reason for layoffs was to refurbish the hotel and to date there is no sign of any work commencing. The Government needs to show some sort of interest in our fight for decency.” SIPTU Sector Organiser, John Regan, said: “I spoke to the Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys yesterday regarding this situation. I called upon the Minister to make direct contact with the main owner of the hotel, a Mr Kai Dai. The first priority is to get Mr Dai to pay all outstanding monies owed to the workers. We also discussed the activation of all of the relevant state inspectorate machinery to investigate all the business arrangements surrounding the hotel since Mr Dai took over the business.” He added: “The owner needs to do the decent thing and come out and declare in writing to the relevant Minister that the hotel is not going to reopen at the end of the 12 week temporary layoff on which he placed the majority of its workforce. What we may have going on here is some sort of sham of a layoffs process aimed at getting the State pay for these workers’ redundancy entitlements.”
SIPTU demands payment of outstanding wages of Nuremore Hotel workers
