Ipoh hotel closes, 140 lose their jobs

CORONAVIRUS | About 140 workers of the Tower Regency Hotel & Apartments in Ipoh will lose their jobs after the business decided to close its operations on April 30.

An internal memo on the closure has made its rounds on social media and was shared by the former premier Najib Abdul Razak in a Facebook post.

A manager of the hotel, who requested anonymity, told Malaysiakini that he was dumbfounded by the explanation in the memo as the workers were never briefed on financial challenges the company was facing.

"It's true that the Covid-19 outbreak and the movement control order (MCO) are among the reasons (behind the financial losses) but all this while the company had never told us that it had incurred losses.

"There was no notice to inform the employees that the company was struggling. Now all the employees, about 140 of them' are being retrenched," lamented the manager.

He added that the employees were notified by the hotel on the decision to close down via WhatsApp.

With the hotel being in operation until April 30, the workers are expected to return to work after the MCO ends on April 14.

English daily The Star quoted the hotel's managing director Simon Leong as saying that other than Covid-19 and the movement control order, the hotel industry had also been affected by "unfair competition."

"The hotel industry has been adversely affected by the 'unfair competition' from homestays and other unregulated accommodation for some time.

"These types of accommodation are subject to minimal, if any, compliance which in turn means minimal cost to them,"

The hotel's internal memo claimed that for the past three years, the Tower Regency had incurred millions of ringgit in losses trying to stay afloat in the business.

The management added that the Covid-19 outbreak has acerbated the hotel's current situation but assured that workers would receive their salaries and retrenchment benefits will be given in accordance with the law.

The hotel has been in operation since January 2009.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Hotels (MAH) chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng said MAH has yet to receive any official notification from the hotel.

"We do not seek for such confirmation (on closures) until the hotel sends an official notification to us," he told Malaysiakini.

In a statement on March 27, MAH said that 2,041 employees of the hospitality industry were laid off due to economic pressures and the MCO.

This in addition to 9,773 being given unpaid leave and another 5,054 who took pay cuts.

MAH had said that the numbers would increase over the next few months.

“We are looking at an average occupancy for Malaysia of nothing more than 25 percent in June and that is if the MCO ends on April 14 with the spread of Covid-19 under control,” MAH president Kamaruddin Baharin said. - Mkini