UNITE will hold socially distanced demonstrations outside the Intercontinental hotels in Group in Glasgow and Edinburgh today in protest at bosses’ fire-and-rehire practices.

As the union prepared for the demos as part of a national day of action against fire and rehire, which has been especially widespread in the hospitality sector, it hit out at the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) over its treatment of workers during the coronavirus pandemic. 

IHG faced criticism last year when it ended the employment of 95 per cent of staff at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow and The George in Edinburgh, blaming the closure of both hotels on Covid-related restrictions. 

Just weeks late, bosses offered to take back some staff on inferior contracts and ignored repeated calls from Unite’s hospitality arm to use the job-retention scheme to furlough workers, with most facing compulsory redundancy. 

In total, the IHG hotels dismissed almost 500 workers on statutory minimum severance packages, even using public money to cover the notice pay of workers on the minimum wage.

One of them was Jamie McCann, formerly a receptionist at the Grand Central. Along with almost 250 colleagues, his job was axed in September, despite proposing alternatives to avoid mass redundancy. 

A month later, an  IHG email invited some of his colleagues back to the hotel, but Mr McCann’s job was advertised as a vacancy. He applied but was rejected. 

He said: “I believe our jobs could have been saved had the hotel used the job-retention scheme as intended or at least listened to our alternative proposals. Instead, I was terminated with less than £500 in severance package, mostly covered by the taxpayer.”

Today’s action is being co-ordinated by members of Unite Hospitality, whose organiser Bryan Simpson maintained that IHG could have saved workers’ jobs rather than using taxpayer money to make redundancy payments. 

He said: “If that wasn’t morally reprehensible enough, they then invited some of these same workers back on reduced hours and wages.

“You would be forgiven for thinking that IHG used Covid as cover to restructure their two biggest hotels and to squeeze labour costs even more than they already had.  

“This is why we will be taking responsible action outside these hotels to send a message to this company that their treatment of workers will not be forgotten or allowed to happen again.”

An IHG spokesman told the Star that all avenues to avoid redundancies had been considered and a “fair and transparent” process was followed.