Boston's Hyatt Hotels: Not Much Hospitality Toward Their Workers

An ongoing labor story here in Boston involves three Hyatt hotels, whose management abruptly terminated some 100 housekeeping workers after having them train replacement workers from a Georgia-based contracting company.  The workers claim they were deceived into thinking they were training vacation fill-ins.

As reported in the Boston Globe:

When the housekeepers at the three Hyatt hotels in the Boston area were asked to train some new workers, they said they were told the trainees would be filling in during vacations.

On Aug. 31, staffers learned the full story: None of them would be making the beds and cleaning the showers any longer. All of them were losing their jobs. The trainees, it turns out, were employees of a Georgia company, Hospitality Staffing Solutions, who were replacing them that day.

Labor advocates and elected officials have responded with dismay and outrage, and with good reason.  Hyatt employees with 20 years service were making a modest wage of a little over $13/hour plus benefits, which based on a full-time work week adds up to annual earnings of around $26,000.  Their replacements will earn about $8/hour, which leads to annual earnings of around $17,000.

In response to the growing firestorm, the Hyatt Corporation said that it is setting up a task force to help the terminated workers find employment and extending their health benefits to the end of the year.  This strikes me as being too little, too late, and a shallow attempt to look better in the public eye.

Contracting has become a common form of replacing full-time employees, and at times, economic necessity may require changes in staffing arrangements.  But one has to wonder about the social responsibility and ethics of a major corporation that deems loyal 20-year employees earning $26,000 “too expensive.”  And if the allegations about deceiving their workers into training their replacements are true, then we can only wonder if they have any decency.

Links to Boston Globe articles:

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/17/housekeepers_lose_hyatt_jobs_to_outsourcing/

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/09/18/hundreds_attend_rally_for_fired_hyatt_housekeepers/

http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2009/09/hyatt_to_help_l.html