Commissioner of Labour clears King Solomon Hotel amid refuted mass sacking allegation

BY IRWIN ANGIKI

The Commissioner of Labour has said King Solomon Hotel had followed all processes to the dot in how it dealt with its workers before the change of ownership last week.

David Kaumae said King Solomon had followed the ‘normal process’ of making its workers redundant and paying them their dues before the change in ownership came into effect.

The hotel is now owned by the Solomon Island National Provident Fund (55 percent) and the O’Neill Remington Group (45 percent). The official handover of ownership was done Friday last week.

The same day a media report claimed the new owners had sacked about 35 of the hotel’s workers.

This was outrightly refuted by the new owners – Peter O’Neill, the NPF and the King Solomon Hotel management – all assuring that not a single worker has been sacked.

In his inaugural speech in Friday’s ceremony, Mr O’Neill said: “Today I hear that our good friends at the newspaper Solomon Star has indicated that we have sacked 35 of our staff here. Let me put it straight. If you had cared to ring me up or ask for my comments, I would have said we are not here for the business of sacking anyone.

“We are not here for the business of sacking. I want to assure everyone that the staff who are here, 75 of them, will continue to work here. That’s the whole idea about taking this construction as we go forward.

“So I think that information as such gives a wrong perception that we are not going to look after our people. Solomon Islands National Provident Fund is the workers’ fund. Our number one priority is to look after our workers.”

NPF in response to enquiries on Friday said: “SINPF, the new management or ownership of King Solomon Hotel will continue to employ the current staff of King Solomon Hotel.

“The story published by Solstar this morning [Friday, February 21] is not true to terminate the staff employed since the former management of the Hotel.”

King Solomon Hotel management in response to enquiries on Friday, said: “King Solomon Hotel (old company) has followed all legal requirements according to labour law.

“All staff have been taken on to continue with the new company/management.”

Supporting hotel management’s statement, Labour Commissioner Mr Kaumae said the hotel had done right by its workers following a normal process which observes labour laws and paying them their entitlements before ownership changed hands.

Kaumae explained that the former employers followed labour requirements and made their workers undergo redundancy in order to pay them their dues and entitlement before the new employers began their tenure on Friday last week.

“We had received a notice, and facilitation for payment was in process, from the Hotel.

“The workers were made redundant and payment was in process. From understanding, before changing ownership the previous employer had to pay the workers regarding how many years they had worked with the previous employer, they have to be paid any entitlement according to law. So they have to be made redundant.

“It’s a normal process. And, whoever continues to work, the new management will now be responsible for them,” Commissioner Kaumae clarified.

Meanwhile, a person close to the matter speaking on condition of anonymity on Friday said the media report was false and misleading.

“The report was based on a PR by the Workers Union which claimed that the new owners had sacked the workers. But, this is simply not true, and all the workers are continuing work as normal.

“It just may have been a misunderstanding by the Workers Union or the Solomon Star over the practice of making workers redundant, especially before a company changes ownership. No one has been sacked,” the person said.

Three workers of King Solomon Hotel spoken to after the Friday ceremony told Island Sun that all the workers under the previous employer are still working, and that they have not heard of anyone being sacked.

Meanwhile, the former owners of Hotel are the Kennedy family from Australia, who had owned it since 2002.

The hotel was established in the 1960s as the Hibiscus hotel.

The hotel offers ‘73 modern and spacious air-conditioned rooms and is built around lush tropical gardens overlooking the beautiful harbour’, according to its website info.

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