An ultra-luxury hotel built in the popular Mediterranean resort city of Antalya with an investment of $1.4 billion cannot regularly pay the wages of its employees.
The Russia-based company that owns the hotel admits the delay and assures all payment will be made in a few days.
A group of employees have recently sent official notices to the AST firm that owns the luxury hotel Mardan Palace, demanding their salaries for September and November. Executives of the AST, one of the leading Russian real estate developers owned by Telman Ismailov, a Russian estate mogul of Azerbaijani Caucasus Jewish descent, said the situation was only temporary.
The employee group told AST in their official notices that their wages have not been paid in the last few months. Some of the workers, whose contracts were suspended once the summer season was over, said they had not been given job guarantees for the next season and they could not get payment in lieu of notice.
The hotel, located in the Kundu district of Antalya, was opened on May 23 with a star-studded ceremony. The 600 guests invited to the opening ceremony included world celebrities and Hollywood stars like Paris Hilton, Mariah Carey, Sharon Stone, Richard Gere, Monica Belluci, Seal and Tom Jones. The cost of the opening gala alone was estimated at $35 million, and the laser show, which was put on by 150 personnel, alone cost $2 million.
Erdem Ödal, who worked as a bartender at Mardan Palace, said his job was suspended when the high season was over. "They said my position was suspended until April, but there is no guarantee that they will take me back,†said Ödal. I started the job on April 28 and was laid off on Nov. 2. We were paid with a two-month delay; I am still waiting for my salaries for September and October.â€
Another bartender at the hotel, Önder Koç said he knew he was hired for the season, but he was not fully paid even for that period. "They suspended our contracts last week,†he said. "We asked them to terminate our contracts rather than to suspend, then we could have received a payment in lieu of notice. But they did not do that.â€
Koç said some employees of the hotel were in such a bad economic condition that they faced legal action for collection of their debts. "I sent an official notice to the hotel for my unpaid salaries, I will continue with the legal procedure,†he said.
While the employees feel they have not been treated fairly, AST’s representative in Turkey Atık Abbasov told the daily Hürriyet that every investment faces problems at a time of economic crisis. "We cared about Turkey and made a huge investment here,†said Abbasov. "Yes, we have some minor problems but we will solve them in a few days’ time.â€
Abbasov said the majority of the employees in Mardan Palace were happy with the work conditions. "They live in company dwellings, we take their children to school with our own buses,†he said. "We offer them the food that the other hotels in the region serve to their customers. We take good care of our employees, and they support us in time of trouble.â€
According to Abbasov, the complainers are just a small minority. "We have never earned a dime illegitimately, and we will not.â€
Abbasov complained that the local contractors demand triple the normal amount when Mardan Palace wants to work with them. "I told the procurement department of the hotel not to use the Mardan Palace name when getting offers for a job,†he said. "Maybe it is because the sellers think ‘a luxury hotel will pay anything,’ or because we are foreigners. But this is the case.â€
Mardan Palace General Manager Cumhur Öen said most of the staff members were hired one-and-a-half years before the hotel was opened. They were under training until the opening and were all paid full salary, he added.
"We have had delays in payments in the last few moths; there are problems in bringing in the money from abroad to Turkey due to the global economic crisis. The problem lies in the depositing and transferring of the money thorough the bank,†Abbasov said.
The hotel has 1,300 employees and the complaints come from 10 to 15 people, said Öen. "The complainers can be right, but are they the only ones who suffer?†he asked, adding that the salaries for November will be paid in a couple of days.
"I am the general manager of this hotel, I can’t get my salary but I continue to do my job,†he said. "All my colleagues are in the same situation with me, but we have all joined forces to go through these troubled days. We might have problems, but this hotel’s employees are like a family, and the family matters should stay in the family.â€
Mardan Palace
The Mardan Palace, built by Telman Ismailov’s AST company with an investment of $1.4 million, was designed to mirror the famous Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul.
The hotel boasts of 560 rooms, including two Royal Suites with private pools - priced at 14,000 euros ($20,000) a night in the high season. The price for a standard room is around 300 euros.
The high-end resort includes a 7,500 square meter spa, 17 bars and 10 a la carte restaurants, including French, Japanese, Russian, Thai and traditional Turkish.
The hotel sports a 20,000 square meter pool, the biggest for a hotel, that guests can take a gondola ride across, which takes a full 30 minutes. The spa boasts a room full of real snow that guests can roll around in immediately after exiting the sauna.
There are five giant aquariums in the hotel decorating the restaurants and spa, and an amphitheater seating 900 guests.
Quelle
