Phuket hotel fires 90 per cent of staff
28 May 2012
Staff at a leading Phuket hotel resort were dismayed to find that they had been sacked with immediate effect early last week. The management of the Evason Phuket and Bon Island Resorts informed 394 staff on Tuesday that their contracts had been terminated and they would be paid up in line with Thai legal requirements.
The Evason is officially closing on 8 June and management have retained a skeleton staff of around 50 to see it through until then. One of those still with a job said that the remaining staff also expected to lose them once the hotel had closed.
The sacked staff have said that although the severance payments satisfy legal requirements, they are not adequate for the loyalty shown by the workers. On Thursday, union representatives led a group of staff who petitioned vice-governor Sommai Preechasin at City Hall asking for an increase in the payments, which in some cases were as low as three months salary.
An indication of last week’s dismissals was provided when Thai and international travel agents were told the Evason would be closing for a major refurbishment and that all guests needed to vacate the premises before 14 May. Another hint was provided when this year’s Phuket Raceweek, a yachting extravaganza, shifted venues from the Evason to the Cape Panwa Hotel.
The Evason started out in life as the Phuket Island Resort in 1969 and was the original family tourist style hotel on the southern Thai island. The family that established the hotel sold it in the latter half of the 1990s and it passed through several changes of ownership before current proprietors Six Senses Resorts & Spas acquired it.
This 1Stop web page provides great information about Phuket’s attractions as well as links to the abundant island hotels that have not closed for refurbishment.
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