IDT rules against RIU Hotels and Resorts in wrongful dismissal dispute

The Industrial Disputes Tribunal (IDT) has ruled against RIU Hotels and Resorts in a dispute of wrongful dismissal brought against it by a former employee.

The IDT ruled that RIU Hotels and Resorts breached the island's Labour Relations Code when it dismissed one of its workers in 2015 for not seeing its designated doctor after sustaining injury from a fall on the job.

In handing down its award on Friday, the IDT said RIU Hotels and Resorts was wrong when it terminated the employment of its assistant manager for housekeeping, More Marianno Reyes, a national of the Dominican Republic after she refused to visit a doctor appointed by the hotel for examination following a fall and subsequent injury.

The IDT contended that, based on the evidence submitted during the hearing of the dispute, a hotel policy, which mandates that an employee who is injured on the job must be examined by a hotel-appointed doctor, did not exist prior to the employee's injury.

Further, the IDT said the Spanish-owned RIU breached the Labour Relations Code when it organised and held a disciplinary hearing that led to the termination of the worker without prior informing the employee that the meeting could have led to her termination.

As a result, the IDT ruled that RIU should compensate Reyes, who was represented by attorney-at-law Emily Shields, the equivalent of 52 weeks pay.

The former employee indicated that she did not wish to be reinstated in the job.