UAWU, Iberostar remain at odds over employees reinstatement

The University and Allied Workers Union (UAWU), says it has engaged its lawyers to defend the rights of 350 former employees of the Iberostar hotel.

First vice president of the UAWU, Clifton Grant, says the management of the hotel has decided to appeal a recent ruling by the Supreme Court and the Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) that hundreds of workers were unjustly dismissed.

The workers’ positions were made redundant two years ago.

However, the court had ruled that they should be reinstated or paid for the period.

Grant says the UAWU believes the hotel’s decision to appeal the court ruling is an abuse of the system.

The workers were sent home in 2009, after the hotel temporarily closed its doors because of what it said was a downturn in the global economy.

However, the IDT disagreed with the company’s action and ruled that the workers be reinstated and given back pay.

That ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court.

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