Immigrants exploitation in hotel industry chains

Immigrants exploitation in hotel industry chains

If you have read my previous article about the Nissi Beach, you already know that Cyprus is a very touristic island, with twice more tourists visiting per year than citizens living there permanently.
When the main income for the government and society comes from the hospitality business, there is a need of some extra hands to work. In the luxury hotels workers to rooms ratio is 1:2, in the middle class hotels 1:4 or 1:5. That means hundreds of thousands of workers, preferably speaking in multiple languages, and, as hospitality does not pay very much, without high salary expectations.

I took one of those positions, getting the job online, from Argentina, where I used to work, and using the opportunity to come back to Europe with some source of income secured. I was working a year in one of the luxury five star hotels from the big local hotel chain (I'll skip the name), as the receptionist. Let me share my observations with you.

The interview was surprisingly short. I'm used to have at least two - three online meetings, some phone calls and maybe couple of mails exchanged before someone will hire me. At the end of the day, the good manager wants to make sure worker will fit the team and they won't have any problems with firing him after couple of months. Well, not this time.

Quick online meetup with the general manager was basically made of small talk, two questions about my previous experience and language skills, and some rude comment about my appearance, which I thought is a test to see if I can keep my emotions controlled (in a five star hotel people complain a lot). I was wrong, that wasn't a test, it was his character, but we'll come back to that.
Whole chat lasted a bit over 4 minutes. I heard I am hired and I was lured with the promise of private apartment, food provided in the hotel and relatively good salary, which would be unavailable for me in Argentina with m y set of skills.

I packed my bags and flied to Cyprus (well, to save some money I flied to Chile, from Chile to Colombia, from Colombia to Spain, from Spain to Italy and from Italy to Cyprus. I sill have no idea how does it all work that the trip was 75% cheaper than with more direct flights). The reality I've discovered here, was more than terrifying.

In the hotel there is a bit over 300 workers, spending 9 hours daily, six day in a week working intensively. Most of them were immigrants, except perhaps 10% of local Cypriots, always in a higher positions. The conditions of work and salary you was getting was highly depending on where are you from.

The best situation was for Cypriots, that were getting more money and occasionally extra day off. Then Greeks, culturally closer to Cypriots, speaking the same language. Third were people like me, European immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria, a few Poles). Our salary was just slightly below the average for the profession we were making, and accommodation was worse (one bedroom apartment, shared for three workers). The worst situation was for all of the workers from out of Europe, with the refugee status. The company knew they won't have the opportunity to easily find any other job, so lowered their salaries to minimal legal payments, and squeezed them in the tiny apartments in 5-6 people.

The way how we were treated by the management was scandalous. A few managers, probably equally frustrated as us that they are not earning enough, were feeling they have the right to decide how we look, and when we work. Last minute changes of shift, and phone calls "we need you in an hour" were very common. If you didn't come to work, you was punished with the worst shifts for the next couple of weeks.

We were controlled to not drink more than one coffee per day, as the salary was too low to cook, we were forced to eat what's provided by the hotel (and it was three-days old food which was not eaten by guests, occasionally with mold), we had to accept the abusive comments from general manager and often when the morale was too low, we were promised better money or better position just to withdraw those promises couple of weeks later.

The rotation of workers was constant and I suddenly understood why the job interview I had was so short. They just had to replace everyone who was quitting, no matter with who. We were just the resource, which will leave anyway so no need to spend extra time to find someone more qualified. That policy had the price. Some workers were stealing, other housekeepers were hiding and sleeping whole days (the management discovered one worker not to do their job even once after... six months!), most were scrolling announcements with the job offers in the region whenever there was nobody in around, knowing that they are too tired to apply anyway.

The general manager, with ego bigger than the Mediterranean Sea felt he can abuse people with every comment, complaining that people are too fat, too skinny, that they want to have life out of the work (he suggested good worker does not need even one day off in a week). He was mentioning many times how much does hiring all of us cost and, looking from the perspective, his behavior was very much like he would own us all and our lives.

The greatest example of such a way of thinking could be local elections. When Cypriots were selecting their regional politics, all the immigrant workers who were long enough on the island to have the right to vote, was suggested to vote for the family member of the owners. It wasn't said directly that saying "no" means being fired, but words like "you like your job, don't you?" were said. Manager paid for the taxis and workers were watched until they entered voting spot.

The immigrants position is always less privileged. They need to start with lower paid jobs, much below their experience and skill set, they need to prove they work harder and are worth keeping the spot, finally less ethical bosses can use the opportunity of them not knowing the law to exploit them a bit. What was happening in the big hotel chain in Cyprus was way over those expected inequalities: underpaying people with no choice to find better job (refugees), squeezing in as many peop[le in one apartment as possible, excessive working hours, not-so-fresh food that could be poisonous, which required checking the mold before putting in on the plate, denying coffee, mobbing, passive-aggressive comments - all of those things were changing the working place into the exploitation mining with immigrants as the main resource (tourists were not treated better, but how the company is saving on them is the topic for another post).

In a democratic country there are systems that help to regulate workers market and stop those abuses. Working controls, laws, all of that works only in the strongest democracies though, and Cyprus unfortunately is not one of them. In most cases the law is to obey by the middle class, and does not have any impact for the richest. The family of the hotel chain was one of those typical multi millionaires (cash poor, assets rich), with significant influences, friends among the PM members, and family members among the local politics. The world we have created in most places around the world allows the richest to exploit workers for their own profit, and nobody is easier to exploit than the immigrant in a financial need.

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