Fifty workers at the Abberly Court Hotel in Tallaght, Co Dublin, have joined SIPTU because of a management decision to abolish service charges, writes Padraig Yeates, Industry and Employment Correspondent. SIPTU catering branch secretary Mr Norman Croke said that the service charge was worth about £50 a week to the members.
The issue was not just one of a cut in pay but one of "ownership" of the service charges, he said. This money was the property of the workers and management had no right to take it away.
SIPTU has written to management seeking the immediate restoration of the service charge, with full retrospection. A woman at the hotel said that no spokesman was available for comment because of a management meeting.