NUHPSW Urges Imo, Ondo To Pay Members’ Arrears

The National Union of Ho
tels and Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW) has urged the governments of Ondo and Imo States to pay the entitlements of its members who were retrenched.
Speaking at the fifth quadrennial national delegates conference of the union held in Abuja recently, the union’s out-going president, Comrade Leke Success, said entitlements of the union’s members are yet to be paid by the two state governments.
He said the outstanding arrears were for workers who worked for Imo Concorde Hotel and Casino Owerri and Owena Hotel in Akure that were closed down by the respective state governments.
He urge the governments to expedite action on the payment of the arrears as, according to him, majority of the retrenched workers still live in penury.
Success also said the insecurity in the North Eastern part of the country is heaving untold hardship on the sector as the ravaging insurgencies have led to the loss of about 40 per cent of revenues by hotels operating in that area of the country.
He said hotels that were hitherto buoyant have now been hit by zero patronage in that part of the country.
The out-going union boss said people now avoid travelling to states in the North Eastern part, stressing that many who were even resident there are literally relocating to more secured business environment and states.
He added that one of the direct consequences of the state of insecurity is that salaries and gratuities of the  union members have been lost in the process.
The union leader, therefore, urged all stakeholders in the hotels industry to liaise with other like-minds to begin a campaign for a bailout package for hotel owners in the troubled states who were forced to close shop as a  result of the insurgency.