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MELAKA: Some 200 long-time hotel employees are now unemployed after two pioneering hotels in the historic city closed their doors permanently. The secretary general of the National Union of Hotel, Bar and Restaurant Workers, Peninsular Malaysia, Rosli Affandi, said some of them have been in hotels for almost 30 years.
“We are saddened to leave these hotels after working for so many years.
“It is really a sad episode since we have been with our employers through thick and thin,” he said.
Rosli, who is also on staff at one of the hotels, said some of the employees received the layoff notice on Wednesday.
“He stated that they are no longer employed before June 30,” he said.
Rosli added that three hotels in Penang, one in Perak and Kuala Lumpur, also notified the union of the decision to fire their workers.
“The union expects to obtain complete information on the exact number of workers laid off by the end of May.
“We are monitoring the situation and we would provide assistance to our members to deal with the situation,” he said.
Melaka Tourism Business Club Vice President Dennis Samford said that in Melaka alone, more than 500 hotel employees could be unemployed at the end of June.
He said the government should reduce dependency on foreign workers and prioritize locals for the hotel industry after Covid-19.
“Foreigners employed as security personnel in hotels can be replaced by locals with slightly higher wages,” he said.
In George Town, the president of the Malaysian Hotel Association (MAH) Penang, Khoo Boo Lim, said he had not received any notification from members that they were closing permanently.
“As far as I know, all closings are temporary. That means that if the market recovers at the end of the year, hotels are likely to reopen.
“There are some hotels that have laid off all their staff, but this does not mean that the owners have abandoned the hotel business,” he said, responding to claims on social media that 35 hotels in Penang had already closed.
Khoo said some of the hotels were still operating but with skeletal staff, as they have long-term guests with them.
He also said that the government-provided subsidy to help the industry overcome the Covid-19 pandemic wave was insufficient.
“Even to pay junior employees, employers will still have to charge at least RM1,000 for each of them.
“If homeowners were to obtain loans to maintain their businesses, they would still have to pay the interest, which would be difficult in light of the Covid-19 outbreak,” he said.
Regarding the sale of hotels in Penang, Khoo said that some of those rumored to be for sale had been searching for buyers for more than a year.
“The motion control order did not prompt them to go on sale,” he added.
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