By Emmanuel wise Jipoh
Another redundant employee of the RLJ Kendeja Resort & Villas in Rehab Community, ELWA, Paynesville, has accused the hotel management of illegal dismissal, while she was in her sick bed, without any benefit despite pleads to the management for her benefit.
Ms. Clara A. Dwapu tells the NEW DAWN that her relationship with the RLJ Kendeja Resort and Villas became sour when she suffered a miscarriage on the job while in the employed of the entity and was illegally dismissed.
“RLJ Kendeja Hotel sacked me while I was sick, bleeding from a pregnancy on the job in 2022. They did not care about my health condition. How long I worked at the hotel? My 13 years of service from 2009- 2022, but yet they fired me without salary to my disbelief”, Ms Dwapu laments, while speaking to this paper.
She continues: “RLJ Managements were very evil to me. I was sick, bleeding without committing any crime despite all my services at the hotel, yet they sacked me without pay, forgetting to know it was the hard work at the hotel that caused my illness, losing my baby. I was sick and the human resource manager, Boniface Kie, only shouted at me, telling me I was dismissed.”
Narrating her ordeal in tears, she reveals that she presented details of her pregnancy and subsequent illness to the hotel, but yet management redundant her without salary.
“I communicated my condition to the management, but without concern, they fired me; I was sick and needed to run after my health by going to Ivory Coast, with my husband funding my treatment. But I’m back to take my action; I need my redundancies”, she maintains.
The former kitchen staff and other redundant workers at the RLJ Kendeja Resort & Villas had accused the management of ill-treatment, bad labor practices, and redundancies, which were published in this paper on December 8, 2023, but the management of the hotel denied the report, terming it as fabricated lies.
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However, The NEW DAWN probes deeper, conducting extensive interviews with some of the aggrieved redundant staff on Tuesday, December 12, 2023, as they recounted how they were redundant without benefits, while others still in the employed of the hotel expressed fear of losing their job and intimidation from management.
In a 47-second audio, an employee of the hotel is heard warning that anyone who dares to speak out risks losing their job, raising fears among employees and contractors, who had expressed willingness to speak to the NEW DAWN on details of alleged ill-treatments at the hotel, but later declined the interview.
However, Prince Andrew Sarwah, who worked at Kendeja Hotel from 2018-2020, explains that he was redundant by the hotel management without notification, after working for more than two years without full employment and had to seek redress for alleged illegal reduction in his contract fees from US$1, 364 to $380.
According to Sarwah, at the time of his redundancy, over 21 staffers of the hotel were redundant in 2020, something that seems to contradict General Manager Mr. Ambrose Houphourt’s recent statements on radio, debunking NEW DAWN’s publication about redundancy at the hotel-To be continued. Editing by Jonathan Browne
New dawn news paper information publication about RLJ Kendeja hotel is erroneous and does not represent the reality at the hotel. These aggrieved redudant or dismissed employees who claimed that they were mad treated by the institution should make use of the law or the labour ministry to channel their greviancies and avoid engaging in media propaganda against the institution.
Like one of the aggrieved persons Prince Andrew Sarwah who claimed according to this paper was making a contract fee of USD $1,364 and was illegally reduced to USD $380, logically which of the hotel in this country pay a Walter or server in a bar that huge amount? Than if he was receiving that amount why should they complain on bad labor practices and less wages from RLJ Kendeja hotel?