Full-time and part-time staff were asked to attend a meeting this morning (Tuesday 27 June) to be told they were being made redundant from 10 July.
Senior staff members had been sent an email by hotel owners giving instructions to cascade the news to staff. So, senior staff who were themselves being made redundant, were told to tell their colleagues that they were also being made redundant.
The Home Office plans to house 241 asylum seekers in 76 rooms at the hotel from July 10.
The redundancy news was branded as ‘callous and mercenary’ by Robert Lloyd, spokesman for the Furnace Action Committee, which has been fighting to save the hotel and the jobs.
“Over the last five weeks, since the plan was first made public, we have had lies, lies and more damn lies,” Mr Lloyd said.
“The owners, Sterling Woodrow (Gryphon Leisure Ltd) consistently said they had no contract in place with the Home Office and the company in charge of their asylum seeker accommodation operations in Wales, Clearsprings Ready Homes.
“For weeks, they lied and said it was business as usual.
“It is only in the last few days that they have shown the ugly face of their greed.
“To dismiss staff without consultation is callous and mercenary, but it is perhaps what we should expect from a business which has operated with one guiding principle in mind – making money!
“The Home Office and Clearsprings lied to the faces of our MP and Senedd member when they said they were talking to staff at the Stradey Park Hotel about their jobs.
“Finally, everyone has shown their hands – the Home Office has been happy to ride roughshod over citizens, Clearsprings have further tarnished a reputation which was already on the edge of the cesspit and Sterling Woodrow have shown a callous disregard for their staff, throwing workers (some of whom have more than 20 years of service) on the scrapheap.
“At the source of this problem is, of course, the Tory Government’s failure to deal with the backlog of processing asylum seekers.
“In their desperate attempts to deal with a problem of their own making, they are now hell-bent on creating further problems.
“Carmarthenshire Council already has a very sound and successful model for housing asylum seekers and refugees. Their method of dispersal in small numbers in the community works, with asylum seekers and refugees being supported and embraced by the communities where they live.
“Placing 241 asylum seekers in 76 hotel rooms, probably on cramped bunk beds and with microwave meals is not the answer. This plan has been hatched with zero public consultation, zero planning, zero risk assessments, zero impact assessments on the wider community and with no reference and dialogue with health services, education services and other support services.
“True to form, there has also been zero consultation about the redundancy process.
“The whole sorry episode is a total scandal and everyone involved, from the Home Secretary down, should hang their heads in shame.”
Workers at the hotel have been told by owners Sterling Woodrow (Gryphon Leisure Ltd to cancel all bookings after July 7 and not to take any new bookings or events from July 7.
More than 100 campaigners took to the streets of Llanelli on Sunday to protest the plans.
(Lead image: Stradey Park Hotel)
Greg
27th June 2023 at 7:05 pm
And the UK Government are happy to aid laying off 100 British jobs, jobs they are meant to protect!, just to put up people who have arrived at our shores illegally from France which is a safe country!
Arthur
28th June 2023 at 6:32 pm
The UK govt., and all the main political parties, and the ‘elites’ in general, big business, the media class, liberal middle class, people who don’t live in the real world, want to bring in as many migrants from the 3rd world as possible, illegal or legal, for economic and ideological reasons, and do not care about normal British people. They don’t care that you can’t find a house because of their open borders policy, don’t care if you suffer from increased crime because of their open borders policy, they don’t care that you can’t access public services because there are millions of extra people due to their open borders policy. They don’t care that your children will live in a violent, dangerous, overcrowded poor country, with no decent future. They think that you are scum to be replaced, especially if you are working class. They have no intention of stopping the boats, and are going to carry on allowing millions of migrants to enter the country. This can’t carry on.
Mayne
30th June 2023 at 8:24 pm
It’s disgusting this UK government can come into Wales and sack 100 working class people this hotel shouldn’t have sacrificed these workers for more money when they go what’s going to happen to this hotel? No one won’t forget
Angelus
5th July 2023 at 10:52 am
Clearly the government needs to be liquidated and replaced with one which governs in the interests of the British people rather than big business, who like immigration because it provides cheap labour, and the third world. This is a fight for survival now. The government are by their actions attacking all of us, the normal people. We must respond.
Sabre
10th July 2023 at 5:34 pm
Mill House (guido commenter):
“According to a friend of mine, who was an HR manager (now retired) for a large hotel near Heathrow, getting rid of the staff is laid down by the government if the hotel wants to accept a government contract to accommodate iIIegals.
She had kept in contact with staff at the hotel, and the hotel management, who she said were always quite benevolent towards staff, did not want to sack nearly everyone but they had no choice as it was imposed by the government.”
So-instead of stopping the channel invasion, the enemy (government) are putting the third world first, and sacking British workers to accomodate the illegal arrivals. Not to mention the million+ Visas they issue every year. They do not govern in our interests, most of the so-called elites want this mass immigration for whatever reason, they allow enablers like Care 4 Calais and the RNLI to operate unchallenged, the courts usually rule in the migrants favour… it is endless, and will only stop when we make it clear that enough is enough.