Minister Alexander visits Allamanda Hotel |01 October 2012

Last week, accompanied by high officials from her ministry, the minister visited the Allamanda Hotel at Anse Forbans.

The visit forms part of the minister’s agenda to enhance partnership with the private sector.
The acting general manager Richard Mondon, general manager Hilton Seychelles Marc Schumacher and the cluster human resources manager, Christelle Naiken, guided the ministerial delegation through all the departments where the minister was able to see the employees at work, interact with them and check on their working conditions.

“It is of paramount importance for the ministry to know what are the labour issues and concerns of employees and employers alike, as the ministry believes that if we have an unhappy workforce then productivity will be non-existent,” the minister said.

“The ministry also wants to promote and ensure that there is good employee/employer relationship,” she added.

Overall, the employees of the hotel were quite satisfied of their working conditions but had one main concern and a bit of confusion regarding the change in the hotel’s ownership.

The Allamanda, which is a four-star tourism establishment, will soon become part of the Hilton International chain of hotels and the employees are claiming that they have not been well informed of the change of ownership.

Minister Alexander has therefore offered the assistance of her ministry to ensure that there is a smooth transition and that the change-over is made according to the labour laws and regulations.

On his part the Hilton Seychelles general manager has welcomed the minister’s initiative to assist and is looking forward to working closely with the ministry. The working collaboration will take effect as from this week.

Mr Schumacher also explained that a meeting has already been held with the staff to inform them of the change of ownership and that nearer to the time, the employees will be given more information and the way forward.

The Hilton general manager has also given his assurance to the minister that none of the staff of the Allamanda will be made redundant.