Living on the costa

The Mercantile Court number 1 of Malaga has executed this Monday the launch o evacuation of the kitchens, the terraces and other common areas where the catering service is carried out of the five-star hotel Guadalpín Banús, in Marbella, before the astonished gaze of the tourists who stay at the establishment, affecting almost a hundred workers in the dining room and kitchen and the very viability of the tourist establishment, for which reason the operating company considers its final closure.

The launch was scheduled for 09:30 this Monday, an appointment that has had a Police deployment of up to 11 National Police vanswhich has not had to intervene using force, since the staff have left the facilities voluntarily and peacefully after 1:10 p.m. after a confinement in the kitchens that lasted two and a half hours.

The court decision derives from a lawsuit filed by one of the multiple owners of the building, the company SPV, which acquired a credit right in 2019 within the framework of the bankruptcy of Aifos -the builder and promoter of the hotel-, although there are discrepancies regarding the ownership of the boundaries of certain spaces, and that decide in a parallel legal proceeding. Thus, the company has taken possession of two premises this Monday, which has come with its private security.

The judicial commission has arrived at the hotel after 10:15 a.m., and after a brief meeting with the parties in the facilities, it has proceeded together with the police to evict the kitchens while the workers strove to get the groceries to relocate the merchandise to another area of ​​the hotel and to be able to continue providing the catering service.

During the course of the confinement of the employees, the commissioner of Marbella, José Manuel Rando, has spoken with the workers to explain the situation, with the aim of having them leave the place because of executing the court order. The template has not shown resistance and he has left the facilities peacefully, although he has made a casserole after being confined on the terraces, before the astonished gaze of the tourists staying at the hotel.

The operating company considers the definitive closure

The company that exercises hotel operation of the Guadalpín Banús, Grisoma, the “definitive closure” of the five-star hotel after the launch is being considered, as stated by the director, Ramón Pons, who has stressed that doing a “restructuring of the workforce and an ERTE to lighten it” is a “lesser evil” that is being considered before the situation that the tourist establishment is going through. In addition, he has pointed out that the legal team is going to request “protection” from the Commercial Court so that “it quickly reopens the facilities for us.”

Pons has remarked that “feasibility is very difficult” and “it has been badly damaged as a 5-star product” when closing also “the commissary, the merchandise room, the interior corridors or the changing rooms”, for which Grisoma “is seeing what possibilities there are”, although he has specified that “it is difficult because a kitchen cannot be improvised”, as well as regretting that “the hotel terraces are one of the main attractions”.

“We do not understand that having the title of empowered as the exploiters of all registered farms that make up the hotel, the launch has taken place”, lamented the manager, as management is based on a model by which properties are subjected to hotel operation. Pons has lamented that SPV “to negotiate wanted a guarantee of 5 million euros”, for which he has criticized that “it does not want to negotiate, it wants to close the hotel”.

SPV considers exploiting its premises

For their part, from the SPV company, which has requested the launch, they have indicated that their position is that “between a new manager, and for that we need Grisona to want to leave ”. “If it is not like that, we will try to exploit the premises and what we can do, but the priority is that it continue as a hotel, in this way the workers would subrogate their rights with the new manager,” they stressed.

Regarding the negotiation, they have indicated that Grisoma “gave us 2 months of guarantee and 10,000 rent for 6,000 meters on the beachfront in Puerto Banús”, assuring that he has requested “a guarantee for a significant and negotiable amount that could have been reduced”, regarding the “rent of all the apartments (14) and premises” almost 7,000 square meters .

They warn that the occupation will be diminished

The CCOO Services Secretary, Lola Villalba, has highlighted that after the launch “occupation will be reduced because there is no restaurant or kitchen, and obviously there will be certain workers who will not be able to have a job”. In this way, he has highlighted that “if Grisoma has not sought another alternative formula, which is to provide the dining room and lounge service in another of the hotel facilities, he will be forced to make an extinction file for those people who do not they will have effective occupation”.

“It is difficult and complicated that a 5-star hotel does not have a catering service”, Villalba pointed out, who recalled that the establishment has a staff of 200 employees, of whom “between 80 and 90 people” work in the kitchen and living room. The trade unionist has pointed out that without this service, “there is a surplus of personnel that is affected”.

On the other hand, it has indicated that the judge has issued an order, which “has not transferred to the parties”, where it indicates that “there is a exploitation unitthat all the apartments in the building have to be put into operation in conjunction with the contracts and rents that are being paid to other owners, so they will not be able to use them with another formula as a tourist apartment ”.

For his part, the legal representative of the workers, Francisco Reina, has assessed that “the facilities may be seriously mortgaged with respect to their continuity” after the launch in Marbella, as well as has pointed to the alternative that the company that exercises the exploitation may propose of the hotel, Grisoma, “so that work activity and the maintenance of jobs can continue.”