Negotiations continued Friday to resolve one of East Timor's first labor disputes, which saw a day-long walkout from the two floating hotels housing UN employees.
About 40 East Timorese workers at the Olympia and Amos W. hotels walked off the job on Thursday to protest wages, working hours and alleged discrimination.
They were back cleaning rooms, doing laundry and catering Friday as hotel management moved to address their complaints. "Yes, they were right in their points," said Wouter Lap, acting manager of the two floating hotels.
The strikers work for Eurest, an international firm subcontracted by the hotels, Lap said. "We insist to them they must increase our salary," said Domingos da Silva, one of the strike leaders. The employees earn five Australian dollars (about 3.5 US dollars) a day but were asking for 25 dollars, he said.
De Silva, a room boy, said they want their 72-hour work week reduced. They also object to searches of their bags conducted in front of East Timorese bystanders on the docksides outside the hotels, he said. "They are suspicious that maybe we are steal something," da Silva said.
"We want justice," said another room boy, Milton Dias Ximenes. Lap said negotiations to resolve the dispute have been conducted with the help of two representatives from the National Council of Timorese Resistance. He said wages can be raised to between 8.50 and 9.00 dollars a day, while the subcontractor is prepared to reduce the work week.
Spot checks of workers leaving the hotels will continue, but in a more sensitive manner, he said. "In any hotel operation, you have to have spot checks," he said. Lap also said new managers are arriving to run the sub-contractor's operation. "The two guys who are there now, they will leave within a week's time," Lap said. Workers were not happy with the two foreign supervisors, he said.
During the day-long strike, more than 30 East Timorese working in the bar, security and front office, employed directly by the hotel, continued to work. Those workers already earn a minimum of eight Australian dollars a day.