The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) has welcomed government’s $9million grant for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism and hospitality sector but called for greater support to bail out other players in the sector.

Key sectors of the economy including the tourism and hospitality sector have been ravaged by the COVID-19 outbreak, as restrictions on flights into the country as well as the closure of its borders have dried up all sources of incomes for hotels, guest houses and restaurants among other major tourist attraction sites.

General Secretary of ICU, Mr Solomon Kotei justified support for the sector, explaining that the hotels in Ghana had remained major employment creators, providing for the livelihoods of many.

Fate of over 3,000 hotel workers under ICU in a balance

“The hotels deserve to be supported because if you look at Ghana’s GDP, the hospitality sector alone contributes 5.7 per cent and if you look at employment, considering ICU alone, with about 24 hotels, if nothing happens and all these people are going to be rendered jobless, further heightening the unemployment rate in the country,” Mr Kotei noted.

ICU lauds hoteliers

Mr Kotei was full of praise for hoteliers for supporting employees during difficult times by paying their full salaries for the months of March and April.

The ICU Boss further praised hotel owners for agreeing to pay 50 percent of workers’ salaries from the months of May, June and July even though “these employers were not working.”

The ICU sincerely showed gratitude to hotel managers and owners for paying the full social security contributions and provident fund on employers 100 percent salaries.

Mr Kotei noted that the union was worried about the pensions of employees because the retirement income was calculated on the employees’ last three months best salaries.

“If you go down 50 percent at your last 3 months salary, your pension will be calculated along that line,” he observed.

Mr Kotei noted that even though some hotels had internal challenges, the majority of them had been able to meet the needs of their staff halfway, a move he described as “commendable.”

The ICU announced that it would hold various stakeholder meetings with hoteliers by end of August to review the conditions ahead.

Government, last week launched a $9 million grant scheme for SMEs and tourism enterprises, aimed at supporting registered individual enterprises operating in the tourism and hospitality sector. The funds, being provided by the International Development Agency of the World Bank Group, will benefit about 1,000 small and medium-scale enterprises in that sector.