Nyali International Beach Hotel proprietor Kamlesh Pattni. [Photo/ businessdailyafrica.com]
Nyali International Beach Hotel’s 146 workers have been barred from staging a strike protesting delayed salaries and allowances.
The employees of the hospitality facility, one of Mombasa’s oldest hotels, had in December issued the hotel with a 14-day notice demanding the payment of their Sh9.7 million salary, allowances and service charge arrears failure of which would see them stage a sit-down.The hotel’s management, however, filed the suit arguing that the planned strike was illegal and insisted that it is not in arrears on salaries, allowances and service charge for its workers.The hotel has for the last ten years been going through difficult financial times after being placed under receivership by KCB Bank over a Sh400 million debt, and pressure from vicious ownership disagreements between billionaire businessmen Kamlesh Pattni and Ketan Somaia.Somaia was in 2016 jailed for eight years in UK after being accused of swindling millionaire investors about Sh2 billion.Mombasa High Court Judge James Rika ruled that going on strike before verification of the claims would overblow the problem. He ordered the Labour Department to look through Nyali Beach Hotel’s records to establish whether or not the hotel has indeed paid all arrears.“It is a dispute which can be resolved by the Labour Officer, investigating the employment records at Nyali Beach Hotel, in the presence of the representatives of the management and KUDHEIHA (union), and ascertain if salaries and service charge have been paid,” Justice Rika said.He, however, warned the hotel’s managers that they will be charged with wage offences if it is proven that the workers’ demands for salary, allowances and service charge arrears are sincere.The Labour Officer was ordered to file in court within 30 days a report detailing the true status of the worker’s grievances.