Sheraton Hotels Expatriate GM Beats Up Nigerian Staff, Unions Kick

The General Manager of Sheraton Hotels in Nigeria has been fired and repatriated after a violent assault on a Nigerian employee at the hotel’s Lagos location, according to organized labor in the hospitality industry.

The Hotel and Personal Services Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Hotels and Personal Services Workers wrote to Marriot International, the hotel management company in Nigeria, requesting that the cluster Managing Director of the Sheraton Hotel in Ikeja be recalled for alleged violations of work ethics and physical assault of employees.

The General Secretaries of HAPSSSA and NUHPSW, Gbenga Isola and Mohammed Usman, respectively, told the Daily Sun that the workers at Sheraton have been wearing a red band on their arms to lodge their issues with the hotel’s management.

According to Isola, the cluster’s managing director, Rex Nijof, turned the entire workforce to casuals and contract workers who are renewable every two years.

The unions said in a letter to Marriot International’s Chief Executive Officer that on October 3, 2021, the Heads of Departments and a few select members of the staff from various departments decided to visit Nijof to wish him a happy birthday on behalf of the whole team.

The letter said: “These selected leaders went along with a befitting cake and a bottle of wine. Rather than appreciate this honest gesture, he molested, abused and dehumanized the Cluster Director of Human Resources, the leader of the delegation, slapped him on his chest and pushed him out of his door to the amazement of others.

“As if this was not enough, the following day Monday 4th of October, 2021 he sadly brought back the cake to the management team meeting. A blatant rejection of the goodwill of the entire workers. An action the entire workers considered a slight.

“A room, long allocated to the Director of Security before his deployment to the hotel, meant to ensure response to emergencies should the need arise, Mr Rex turned the room to his bicycles parking lot while the man was still occupying the room before being finally ejected, while millions of naira was spent purchasing brand new items for his own apartment in the hotel.”

They also alleged that the General Manager has since begun the conversion of the entire workforce to casuals and contract staff renewable every two years, thereby creating a workforce that are not only dissatisfied but gradually depicting this in their quality of service.

Equally, the union accused him of giving the status of permanent staff to people he employed, while some casuals who have spent 10 years as casuals, are yet to be made staff.

According to the letter: “Mr. Rex has created a serious unease in the minds of the workforce because if the cluster Director of Human resources can be dehumanized this way, it suggest that no one is safe. A very dangerous precedence has been created by Mr. Rex Nijof.”

“In the light of this very unfortunate situation, we demand for the resignation of Mr Rex with immediate effect to save the hotel from the pending shame and ridicule his actions are bringing to the hotel and the entire workforce.”