SIPTU workers protest at greedy luxury Davenport Hotel attack on low pay

dublin | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Sunday February 20, 2011 21:40 by Trade Union TV tradeuniontv at gmail dot com

The bosses have started to attack low paid workers already on low wages. Greedy luxury hotelier at Davenport Hotel force workers to earn less than €8 per hour. Watch the video here with two of the women workers from Lithuania.

'SIPTU members at the Davenport Hotel in Dublin mounted pickets this morning after being taken off the roster for refusing to sign new contracts reducing their national minimum wage rate by almost €1 an hour. When the legislation was being passed, the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan, gave assurances that existing employees of companies on €8.65 an hour could not have it reduced without their consent. However, the workers concerned, all women from Eastern Europe, have been brought into three meetings over the past three weeks and repeatedly told they must sign the new contracts or face being taken off the roster. They were not given a copy of the new contract, either in English or in their own languages.

The women, who are from Lithuania and Poland and have worked at the Davenport Hotel for between four and six years, refused to sign the new contracts on 1st February when the new legislation came into force and have been removed from the payroll ever since. SIPTU served strike notice on the hotel on 9th February over the hotel's decision which it regards as an effective lockout.'

More details here:
http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/Headline/Nam....html

Caption: Video Id: N-rlWUQTlZQ Type: Youtube Video
Davenport Hotel strike