Gresham staff await Labour Court ruling on bonus pay

Workers at three Gresham hotels being sold said yesterday the company had agreed at a Labour Court hearing to pay them a goodwill bonus. However, the hotel group said it remained opposed to making any such payment.

The 320 staff at the three former Ryan hotels in Galway, Limerick and Killarney are seeking a goodwill payment of at least €300,000 from Gresham Hotel Group, which recently agreed to sell the hotels to Choice Hotels Ireland for €35 million.

Gresham management and SIPTU representatives attended a private hearing at the Labour Court yesterday in a bid to resolve the issue.

Afterwards, SIPTU spokesman Mr Michael Kilcoyne said the court had not made a final decision, but he added that the company had agreed to make a payment. "The company clarified that they were prepared to pay something," he said.

But Mr Paul McCracken, who represented the company at the hearing, denied that it had agreed to make any payment.

"Our position has always been that we were opposed to making this payment, and that's what we said this morning," he said, adding that the company would not comment further until the Labour Court decision.

It was not known how long the court would take to hand down its ruling, but it was understood it would be at least two weeks.

The court agreed to hear the case quickly as the ownership of the Galway and Limerick hotels has already passed to Choice. The Killarney Ryan will remain under Gresham management until September.

SIPTU is basing its case, in part, on the fact that hotel group Jury's Doyle paid a loyalty bonus to staff at the Skylon and Jury's Waterford properties when it sold them last year to Donegal businessmen, Messrs Brian and Sean McEniff.

The three former Ryan hotels employ 320 people. Up to 60 of these have more than five years' service. SIPTU said it wanted the payment to reflect length of service, where appropriate.

The Gresham group owns the Gresham in Dublin and the Royal Marine in Dún Laoghaire, as well as a number of properties in Britain and Europe. Choice operates 19 hotels in the Republic.