The Landis Taipei (台北亞都麗緻飯店) is negotiating with its employees about a plan to introduce unpaid leave as its business suffers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, hotel management said in a statement yesterday.
The statement was the hotel’s response to a Chinese-language media report the previous day that said the Landis Hospitality Group (麗緻餐旅集團) on April 1 would introduce a three-month plan under which employees would take six days of unpaid leave per month.
It is the latest move by the group to offset declining guest numbers following the closure of the Landis Taichung (台中亞都麗緻飯店) on Monday last week, the report said.
Landis Taipei said in the statement that it is still discussing the plan with its employees and would reveal the details once an agreement is reached.
“It is necessary to have staff consent” before cutting working hours, the statement said, expressing the hope that employees would understand the difficult situation the company is in.
The provisional furlough policy would be rescinded if business recovers quicker than expected, the statement said.
With the closure of the Landis Taichung, the Landis Group has five local hotels and resorts: the Landis Taipei, the Tayih Landis Hotel Tainan (台南大億麗緻酒店), Pause Landis Resorts (璞石麗緻溫泉會館) in New Taipei City’s Wulai District (烏來), the Landis Resort Yangmingshan (陽明山中國麗緻大飯店) in Taipei and the Landis Inn Chuhu (竹湖暐順麗緻文旅) in Hsinchu City.
Landis Group business development division assistant general manager Gary Lo (羅明威) attributed the closure of Landis Taichung after 13 years to the economic slowdown, surging rental fees and operational costs, as well as the impact of the pandemic.
“We never made enough to cover our losses,” Lo said.
Landis Taipei shares fell 1.45 percent to close at NT$21.50 on Friday last week. There were no trades yesterday.
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