THE Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has given Livingstone’s New Fairmount Hotel a five-day ultimatum to allow its workers to join unions of their choice failure to which the entity will face sanctions.
ZCTU Secretary General Roy Mwaba has given a five-day ultimatum to Fairmount Hotel to allow its workers join unions of their choice and be able to bargain for their conditions of service.
Mr Mwaba said it was unacceptable for a Hotel, which was hosting several national conferences for trade unions, to have a situation where its workers were not allowed to join any trade union.
He was speaking in Livingstone on Thursday in an interview on the sidelines of the just ended 13th Mineworkers Union of Zambia (MUZ) quadrennial conference held at New Fairmount Hotel.
“I want to confirm that ZCTU held a very high level meeting on Wednesday afternoon with the management of New Fairmount Hotel.
Because of the defiance that the hotel has had over the issue unionisation, we have given them a five day ultimatum to ensure that all workers at the hotel that are eligible for unionisation fill up forms and join a union of their choice,” he said.
Mr Mwaba said if the Hotel did not comply with the ultimatum, ZCTU would apply sanctions against the entity.
He said it was common knowledge that the hotel survived because of the workshops and conferences that the labour movement took to its premises.
“If management does not comply with the ultimatum, we are going to direct all trade unions in Zambia to shun using the hotel for any kind of business.
Technically, that will mean that New Fairmount Hotel will be a no go area for union functions and all those that have booked including ZCTU may cancel the booking and they will go to other hotels and lodges,” Mr Mwaba said.
He said ZCTU investigations revealed that there were other hospitality entities that were violating the workers’ rights by refusing them to belong to a labour movement.
“We have a number of lodges and hotels which we are also going to visit and we would like to give a timely warning to such entities behaving like New Fairmount Hotel to comply with the laws of the country,” he said.
Mr Mwaba said appealed to District Commissioners and labour officer for Southern Province to work with the labour movement so that the workers were unionised.
ba zctu tell us which hotels have unions and do lodges have unions? stop yapping.u hav just ova stayed in office drinking free mineral water.