Habtom Tesfaye, president of the Hilton Hotel Workers` Association, argued that the ambiguity in the rulings allowed the management to continue its practices. The union leaders addressed their complaints to the Board of Directors, chaired by Yinager Dessie (PhD), former central bank governor, but received no response.
The Federation of Tourism, Hotels & Service Union has taken matters into its own hands. The Ministry organised long discussions between labour union leaders, the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Union (CETU), and the Federation.
Asfaw Abebe, the Federation’s president, disclosed they plan to help negotiate the collective agreement between the management and workers of Hilton that expired almost five years ago.
“We’ve been holding prolonged negotiations with the management,” Asfaw told Fortune.
The Federation proposed a predictable annual salary increase based on the Hotel’s profit. The Union requested a 45pc increase if the hotel made a profit exceeding the target at the end of the year. However, Hilton’s managment was not happy with the proposal. It argued that employees missed sick leaves, prompting denial of service charges.
