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Marriott hires 239 staffers; 228 are Guyanese
…admits recruiting 30 staffers from other hotels
Chairman of Atlantic Hotel Inc. (AHI), Winston Brassington, has denied that a significant number of
AHI’s head, Winston Brassington
foreigners are being recruited for the running of the Marriott Hotel.
The official, in a statement detailing the recruitment, also admitted yesterday that 30 staff members hired once worked at other local hotels.
The 197-room US$57M hotel is due to be opened shortly. There have been criticisms that AHI was aggressively pursuing workers from local hotels and not interested too much in local labour.
Brassington noted that of the 239 staff chosen from just under 3,500 applications received to operate the hotel, 228 are Guyanese.
Some 90 of these staffers are in training with another 60 more to begin training next week.
This means, Brassington said in the AHI statement, that less than five percent of the total staff engaged is from overseas.
Of a total complement of 29 management staff hired from 922 applications, 20 are Guyanese. Five of these Guyanese were recruited from overseas.
Of the nine non-Guyanese management staff engaged from overseas, four are Food and Beverage specialists not available in Guyana.
Some 691 applications were received for supervisory staff with 30 persons engaged- all of whom are Guyanese and only five of whom previously worked at another hotel in Guyana.
Of the non-management positions, Brassington said, 1,862 applications were received with 180 staff
Marriott Hotel is due to be opened in a matter of months.
engaged- 23 were from other hotels in Guyana.
This meant, Brassington said, of the 3,475 applications received, a total of 223 positions are recruited from Guyana, of whom, thirty 30 have worked with other hotels in the country.
The official said that the salary scales offered for staff recruited from Guyana are comparable with those generally paid in the hospitality sector here for similarly qualified and experienced staff. He reminded that in setting salary levels for recruitment, the Marriott management has a contracted obligation to the principal owners of the hotel to deliver a profitable hotel.
The AHI statement insisted that the hotel was already delivering on its promise to create new employment in Guyana and “it is patently ridiculous for anyone to claim otherwise. The hotel will open with 239 new employees. This number will be approximately doubled when the Casino and Restaurant Entertainment complex comes on stream.”
In recent weeks, owner of the nearby Pegasus Hotel, Robert Badal, complained that the hotel was stealing its employees.
Over the past weekend, Opposition’s Alliance For Change, made it clear that it will revisit, review and if necessary impose sanctions if it gets into Government when elections are held in May.
AHI which is managing the construction and shares of the company, has under the financing arrangement, invested just over US$20M in taxpayers’ dollars and was looking to raise US$27M more from a syndicated loan arranged by Republic Bank Trinidad.
Another US$8M would have been coming from two Hong Kong businessmen. However, a court case filed by Member of Parliament, Desmond Trotman, blocking the transfer of the land, has held up those monies.
The US$8M would have controversially allowed the two Hong Kong businessmen to gain a 67 percent control of the hotel. But that investment is held up by the court case.
Government has remained silent where it found the monies to carry on construction as the hotel is set to open in a few months.
The Opposition has been asking, but Head of AHI Winston Brassington, and Government, have refused to answer.
There have been speculations that the remaining monies were coming from local businesses but there has been silence.
The extravagant incentives and other benefits to Marriott have left other hotel operators extremely worried as the new 197-room hotel in Kingston, when it comes on stream this year, is more than likely to close them down.
In December, Brassington admitted that financing for the project was in jeopardy because of the court case filed by Opposition Member of Parliament, Desmond Trotman.
Government said that the new hotel will be giving Guyana branding and attract high-end clientele.
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