'Shafted', shocked and angry over shutdown
THE sudden closure of Ackergill Tower has left former workers "gutted and depressed" just a few days before Christmas.
On Friday morning, most of the full-time staff and contract workers at the luxury hotel turned up for an emergency meeting after a text message from owners Clarenco asked them to attend.
They say they were told the company could offer none of them – with a few exceptions – any work from that day forward, with "a possibility" of being re-employed on March 1.
In the aftermath of the announcement, Wick councillor Nicola Sinclair described herself as "shocked and angered" at how the staff had been treated just days before Christmas.
"It's a sad blow for our tourist industry and a hotel that was nothing short of a local icon. It's a shameful decision by the owners," Councillor Sinclair said.
Sarah MacLeod (17) said she never received the text and only heard that the Tower was closing from a newspaper article.
"I was extremely disappointed that none of the management from the Tower or Clarenco called or emailed me to tell me I'd lost my job," she told the Courier on Monday.
Chief executive Suzanne Hurndall said that she had told the 20 or so staff who showed up that "bookings for the winter season were down" and the Tower would have to close a bit earlier than an expected date in January.
Ms Hurndall said: "There haven't been any redundancies and we were going to close in January anyway – the staff had previously been told that.
"It's well known in the hospitality industry that hotels close over the winter season when there are fewer bookings. That's just the hard fact. We will reopen on March 1 and offer these positions again."
Most of the 31 workers at the 15th-century Caithness castle – a popular tourist destination on the North Coast 500 – were employed on zero-hours contracts under which Clarenco does not guarantee them a specific number of working hours and offers work when it arises. Of the seven full-time staff, two have been kept on to "caretake" the tower over the winter season and the other five will have work offered again.
Ms Hurndall emphasised that "nobody" had been made redundant.
Ackergill Tower has been for sale for the last three years, and a planning application has been lodged with Highland Council seeking permission to change the use of the building from a hotel to a house.
Ms Hurndall said: "Someone is making their own enquiries and looking into the planning permission but that is outside our control. It is just a coincidence that the potential buyer is interested at the same time as the bookings are down and we've had to close early."
However, staff who felt they had work over the festive season talked of the "many bookings over Christmas" that should have secured their positions.
Ms MacLeod – who now expects to be out of work until the new year – said she "loved the Tower and the staff" but felt that the company running it was "not well managed".
"When I started it took two-and-a-half months for me to finally be paid as they had somehow lost my details and never told me they had," she said.
Other disgruntled workers talked of feeling "shafted" by the company. "All we got was a text telling us to come in for a meeting at half-past 10 on Friday morning and saying it was urgent," said one woman who wished to remain anonymous.
The woman said that in all the years she had been at the Tower it had only closed for maintenance after New Year for "one or two weeks" and when restoration of the interior took place after a fire in 2014.
"I feel totally shafted by them [Clarenco] and so do many of the others. They have treated the locals like dirt. There was lots of people booked for our Christmas party night on the 22nd and they just told them 'sorry' – leaving them with probably nowhere to book at such short notice."
She said that Clarenco should have "waited until after Christmas" to announce the news.
"Many of us on these zero-hours contracts were working up to 60 hours a week and got paid no more than the 40 hours stipulated. It's a terrible way to work, really."
The Caithness civic leader, Councillor Willie Mackay, said: "It's always so disappointing when one hears about staff being made redundant and even more so with the festive season upon us.
"I sincerely hope those concerned will find similar work as soon as possible."
The owner of Mackays Hotel in Wick has stepped in and offered employment to some of those affected.