Nearly 100 workers at a hotel that has been earmarked to house hundreds of asylum seekers are understood to have been told they will be losing their jobs. Staff at Llanelli's Stradey Park Hotel are claimed to have been called to meetings on Tuesday (June 27) to be told they would be made redundant from July 10.
Llanelli MP, Dame Nia Griffith, branded the news "outrageous" and one worker has described the shock felt as they were told the news. It's understood 50 full-time and 45 part-time staff are affected.
It's understood that senior staff members, who have also been made redundant, had been sent an email by the hotel owners giving instructions about how to deliver the news to staff. You can get more Carmarthenshire news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
One worker, who asked not to be named, claimed: "We were called to a last minute meeting on Tuesday morning and were given the news that everyone would be made redundant with the last day being July 10. It was some of the managers who have been made redundant themselves who had to deliver the news. There was just complete shock. Thankfully, we have had a lot of support locally but it just doesn't make sense."
It has been reported that the Home Office plans to house 241 asylum seekers in 76 rooms at the hotel.
Dame Griffith said it seemed a "shoddy way" to treat the hotel's existing staff. She said: "This is outrageous news and such a shoddy way to treat the hotel’s existing staff who have been kept in the dark all the way through this situation by the hotel’s owners. It is a disgraceful and degrading way to treat the workers. The hotel owners, Clearsprings (Clearsprings Ready Homes - which provides housing services for the Home Office) and Tory Ministers in the Home Office should hang their heads in shame.
"I have already been in touch with the staff there to offer my full support to them in this difficult time and I am pleased that Carmarthenshire County Council have confirmed to me that they will be able and willing to assist too."
The redundancy news was branded as ‘callous and mercenary’ by Robert Lloyd, spokesman for the Furnace Action Committee, which has been fighting to save the hotel and the jobs. It objects to the plans on the grounds of health and safety, planning, and the impact on public services and the wider community.
“Over the last five weeks, since the plan was first made public, we have had lies, lies and more damn lies,” Mr Lloyd said.
He added: “The owners, Sterling Woodrow (Gryphon Leisure Ltd) consistently said they had no contract in place with the Home Office and the company in charge of their asylum seeker accommodation operations in Wales, Clearsprings Ready Homes. For weeks they said it was business as usual. To dismiss staff without consultation is callous and mercenary."
It has been reported that workers at the hotel have been told to cancel all bookings after July 7 and not to take any new bookings or events from July 7.
The hotel owners have been contacted for comment.
Carmarthenshire Council leader Darren Price said last week that groups of up to 55 asylum seekers would start arriving at the hotel from July 10. He said he felt it was "disgraceful" for the Home Office to push on with its "unwise move". The proposed use of the hotel was, he said, "completely inappropriate". He said the council was not opposed to supporting asylum seekers and refugees and that it had a good track record on this front with a dispersed model of accommodation. "We are keen to continue to accept our share of asylum seekers," he added.
A Home Office spokesman has said previously, in response to multiple different questions: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day," he said.
"We engage with local authorities as early as possible whenever sites are used for asylum accommodation and work to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people. " He added: "We are working closely to listen to the local communities’ views and reduce the impact of sites, including through providing on-site security and financial support."
