Portuguese hotels to lay off 85% of workers in April


Reuters | Lisbon | Updated: 08-04-2020 18:23 IST | Created: 08-04-2020 17:36 IST
Portuguese hotels to lay off 85% of workers in April
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  • Country:
  • Portugal

Around 85% of hotel workers in Portugal will be temporarily laid off in April due to the impact the coronavirus is having on the country's economy, Hotels Association AHP said on Wednesday.

AHP said 93.8% of Portuguese hotels will or have already applied to be able to temporarily lay off workers. AHP President Cristina Siza Vieira said this was a way to "keep jobs". Approved by the government, the lay-off measure allows companies to temporarily suspend jobs or reduce working hours but does not permit them to fire staff or make them redundant.

AHP also said the hotel industry could lose 80-90% of its revenues, or up to 1.4 billion euros between March and June if the coronavirus continues to spread. Portugal attracts millions of foreign visitors annually, and the tourism sector, accounting for nearly 15% of gross domestic product, helped it to recover from the 2010-14 debt crisis.

The country's biggest hotel chain is Pestana, which manages nearly 100 hotels. Another chain is Vila Gale, which owns around 30 hotels. There are also foreign-owned hotel chains operating in the country. Portugal is boosting credit lines for businesses struggling with the coronavirus outbreak to 4.2 billion euros after a state aid package from the European Commission helped to shore up the country’s finances.

Companies have so far applied for 90 million euros of an original 3 billion in credit announced by the government two weeks ago. That money is targeted towards the tourism sector, hotels, restaurants, and traditional industries such as textiles, clothing, and timber. Portugal, currently on its third week of a nationwide state of emergency, has so far reported 13,141 confirmed coronavirus cases and 380 deaths, a relatively low toll, especially compared with neighboring Spain and Italy.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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