According to The Business Post, former staff members of the Celbridge Manor Hotel, which is in the process of being sold, have received an increased redundancy payment offer of 10%.
The offer was made with the caveat of a signed waiver, to protect against possible action taken by the staff as a result of a two-month delay in receiving their redundancy payments.
Redundancy Payments
As things stand, the hotel is being sold by US businessman Jeff Leo, and ex-staff members have been waiting since the end of November for their redundancy payments.
Staff were initially told last summer that they would be made redundant because the hotel, which was built in 1737, was no longer viable due to the pandemic.
The Celbridge Manor Hotel has written to staff members, offering them an extra 10% on top of their redundancies if they sign a waiver promising not to take further action against the company.
Staff members were given the option of signing an agreement that means that they cannot take legal action against the company, which is in the process of being sold to a third party.
They could also decline to sign, in which case they will not receive the 10% top-up payment, but will receive the regular redundancy money that was promised.
It’s understood that staff members who do not sign have been told that they will receive their redundancies on Wednesday of this week (3 February).
Those who do sign also have to agree that the redundancy payments will be the last claims that they make against the company, and promise not to make derogatory statements about the company in public.
The correspondence with workers comes a week after Leo committed to paying them their redundancies by 3 February.
Before that, the company noted that it would make the payments ‘no later than Monday 17 January 2022’.
Staff members were initially promised redundancies on 25 November.
Waiver
Leo told The Business Post that the waiver formed part of the deal to sell the Celbridge Manor Hotel to a third party.
As part of the deal, the buyer is purchasing Country Manor Hotels, which operates the 66-bed guesthouse.
Last week Leo said that the needs of the hotel’s former employees were the priority in his decision to pay the redundancies himself.
It’s understood that, in recent months, the Celbridge Manor Hotel has housed staff members working at Intel’s construction site in Leixlip, though the company is not linked to the sale.
© 2022 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Conor Farrelly. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
