RUNAWAY BAY, St Ann — Workers at Gran Bahia Principe Resort here are angry at the management of the Spanish-owned property over their decision to place two members of the housekeeping department on indefinite suspension.

The workers, who stopped working Monday but returned to work yesterday morning, are also upset with the present working environment, claiming they sometimes have to work under appalling and unfriendly circumstances and that the hotel’s management shows no consideration for their concerns.

Union delegate with the Bustamante Industrial Trade Union Ronald Bailey said there are a number of issues affecting workers at the resort, but the indefinite suspension of the two employees has pushed other workers over the brink.

“There are a lot more issues regarding the workers that are now on the table, but we consider the suspension of these two workers as very important right now and we want this issue to be properly addressed,” Bailey told the Observer yesterday.

Bailey explained that one of the workers was suspended after he requested that the hotel pay him increased wages in line with what other workers in the department to which he was promoted are paid.

He said the other worker, a female housekeeper, was suspended after she reported inappropriate sexual behaviour against a manager who had reportedly made sexual advances towards her.

A decision was taken during a late night meeting Monday between union representatives and members of the hotel’s management to reinstate the male worker after more than 200 line staff walked off their jobs in protest against the suspensions.

However, up to yesterday afternoon the worker, who had been on suspension for seven days, was not called back to work.

Attempts by the Observer to get a response from the management of the resort were unsuccessful.

Meanwhile, the hotel’s management is yet to take a decision on the status of the female worker or the manager who she accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour. The workers want the manager to be suspended while the claims against him are being investigated.

The issue was expected to be discussed during a meeting scheduled for last evening between the general manager and other managers at the resort, union officials and the manager and worker at the centre of the controversy.

In the meantime, the female worker has expressed disappointment over the hotel’s handling of the issue.

“Because I wasn’t into what he (the manager) was in, he reported me to HR (human resources) and they just call me and told me that I have been taken off the payroll and that I should attend a meeting …,” she told the Observer, adding that she was send home Wednesday.

“The manager start treat me bad from him try to get sexual with me and me refuse,” she alleged. “One time he approached me in his underpants and asked me if him private part looked good and if I didn’t like him again.”

She also claimed the manager kissed her on the cheek on another occasion.

Workers told the Observer that on a daily basis they are treated poorly by managers who show them little or no respect. They claim the management is unsympathetic towards their concerns and that they sometimes have to work long hours with no break or extra pay.

“The Spanish dem treat us like dogs, the worst treatment that anybody can imagine we get over here, they don’t have any respect for workers, dem tell us anything, talk to us any way, treat us like we are not humans and we are expected to just take it,” another worker explained.