Turkey: massive strikes in the hotel sector
31 August 10:12
Incidents involving staff dissatisfaction have occurred in Turkish hotels popular with tourists, leading to disruptions and difficulties for vacationers. The problems were recorded in Side Win Hotel in Side and Vav Hotel in Kusadasi.
This was reported by "Komersant Ukrainian" with reference to Turkish media.
The day before, Evrensel.net reported that tourists at the Side Win Hotel were left without food and water.
Employees of the Side Win Hotel in the Manavgat district of Antalya took to the streets because of unpaid wages and poor working conditions. Mahir Doğan, an organizational specialist at Dev Turizm İş, a member of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), explained that the hotel employs approximately 650 people, but has no electricity or water.
One of the hotel employees described the crisis he faced: “I still haven’t been paid my salary. I have been working for 30 days and have not received any salary. There are also interruptions in electricity and water supply. The problem is not only the salary; the working conditions are terrible.”
However, according to the guest relations manager in Antalya, the situation was less critical. “Today the Side Win hotel is operating normally. There was no strike as such. It’s just that a few people resigned, and this caused a technical failure,” she explained.
According to her, all the tourists from this hotel were promptly relocated to other hotels in different regions – from Alanya to Kemer, providing them with good conditions.
Another incident occurred at the Vav Hotel in Kusadasi. According to the local newspaper Turizm Ajansi, the staff started a protest action because they had not received their salaries for several months.
The protest led to serious consequences: water was cut off, air conditioning stopped working, food was not provided, and room service stopped. Many guests were reportedly forced to interrupt their vacation, and lines lined up at the front desk to get their money. The hotel staff intends to go to court. The police were called to the scene to resolve the situation.
According to experts, the problems in Turkish hotels may be related to rising inflation in the country, which forces hotel owners to balance between raising prices and retaining tourists. Previously, many tourists have already begun to shift their focus to other destinations, such as Egypt and the UAE, where the cost of a vacation can be lower for comparable quality.
By the way, a new “headache” for tourists and tour operators has been invented by hotels in Turkey, where the notorious “dynamic pricing” or demand-based pricing is becoming more and more common and popular.
