-victim demands eight months' salaries
Liberia: Golden Key Hotel Management grapples with bad labor and eight months' salary arrears claims by a dismissed female employee.
However, hotel management says Complainant Decontee Dennis was a casual worker, as she was never given an employment letter.
The Management of Golden Key Hotel in Paynesville faces allegations of bad labor practices and inhumane treatment at its facility.
A former employee of the hotel, Decontee Dennis, alleges mistreatment, discrimination, and physical assault by the hotel owner Madam Nowai Gorlorwulu.
Madam Dennis, who is demanding eight months' salaries owed by the management, also accuses Madam Gorlorwulu of brutal assault, inflicting physical pains in her body, for which she is currently seeking medication while her former Boss is allegedly refusing to pay her arrears.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, 26th February 2024, she said employees of the Golden Key Hotel work under harsh and unfair conditions, noting that she didn't speak out while in the employ of the entity for fear of intimidation and lack of job opportunities here.
According to her, after she was allegedly flogged by Madam Gorlorwulu, a few days later she was sent home from work on February 12, 2024, and told that her services were no longer needed without paying her off.
Decontee Dennis
Narrating the story of the alleged physical assault, Madam Dennis says it all started on a faithful day while working as a waitress, serving guests of the National Elections Commission (NEC) through a USAID-funded workshop which coincided with the return of Madam Gorlorwulu from America.
She continues that her former Boss then asked her and a fellow employee only identified as Evelyn, to clean the warehouse because the Management was expecting a container of goods from the United States but she told Madam Gorlorwulu that she was catering to the USAID guests, which angered the Boss, who allegedly slapped her for being disrespectful and rude.
"It was one day while I was working in the kitchen that my Boss Lady came to me, saying she got her container with goods coming and that I and my friend Evelyne should go clean the warehouse for the goods. It was then I told her I was already catering and attending to guests, which she saw as disrespectful and began to slap me. It was only me she slapped, beating on me as her slave, when she doesn't even pay for work we are doing", Madam Dennis narrates.
"Sometimes it takes five, six, or four months before we get one month's salary; then she always aggravated us, and sometimes illegally sent us home without salary. There's never an extra service, so when she came to ask me and Evelyne to help her clean the warehouse for her goods, and told her I was already engaged that's how she started to beat on me", Decontee continues.
She explains how she went home the very day of the assault and began to take treatment and when she returned on Monday, February 12, 2024, Madam Gorlorwulu told her that her contract at the hotel was terminated without salary and asked to leave the premises of the hotel immediately by private security.
She says she went home and told her husband, identified as Alphonso Dennis about the situation.
Speaking on the alleged maltreatments meted against his wife by the Golden Key Hotel Management, including alleged illegal dismissal, Mr. Dennis, a resident of King Gray Community in Paynesville, who says he had recommended his wife for a waitress job at to Hotel, notes that he was deliberately insulted by the Manager, while trying to inquire about reasons that led to his wife dismissal.
When contacted, Hotel Proprietress Madam Gorlorwulu, who asked journalists to reverse the story, because there was no significant need and evidence for publication, however, admitted that the hotel owes Madam Decontee Dennis for services rendered to the entity.
She alleges that Decontee Dennis has been abusive and apparently lazy on the job, as she was only hired based on recommendation from her husband (Alphonso Dennis) who is a leader of the King Gray Community, and also as part of the Hotel's Social Corporate Responsibility, noting that she had no qualification for the waitress job, neither did she submit an application, but was rather hired as a contractor on a gentleman agreement, adding that she treated fairly like other workers.
According to her, Madam Dennis' alleged gross disrespect to the entity is in violation of the code of conduct for workers at the Golden Key Hotel, and this led to her dismissal. Madam Gorlorwulu explains that she did not immediately terminate the contractual agreement with Madam Dennis, but had asked her to go home for the gross disrespect and allegedly threatening to engage her (Madam Gorlorwulu) into a physical fight.
"That girl is disrespectful; she doesn't know anything, and was only hired based on our relationship with the community and her husband, who had recommended her without inquiry about her suspension. She disrespected our policies, with series of text messages, threatening to insult me and rebel, and there was no option but to dismiss her. She is no longer needed at this hotel.
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"All we will do since they have started to take the media, particularly the husband without seeking any form of inquiry to me as owner, why Decontee was suspended, he recommended his wife to serve in the kitchen, but to call journalists without evidence, what her salary is, how much she has worked for and the circumstances in which she was suspended, for all this we will calculate the length of time she has served us and pay her salary to the Police because a girl like this is no longer needed at the Golden Key Hotel", Madam Gorlorwulu, Chief Executive Officer and owner of the Hotel adds.
Complaints of maltreatment against hotel employees by management are becoming common here. Recently, the Management of RLJ Keneja Hotel and Villa along the Robertsfield Highway similarly in Paynesville was taken to court by a former female employee for unbearable ordeal she suffered while in the service of the entity.
However, it would seem difficult if Madam Decontee Dennis were to consider legal recourse since she does not have a written contract, as Madam Gorlorwulu says.
