More than 600 workers at some of Scotland's top hotels are in line for the sack - union bosses have claimed.
Trade Union, the Unite Hospitality Twitter feed revealed part of that figure includes 137 out of 205 employees at the Blythswood Square Hotel, in Glasgow, who were given the shock news on Thursday, June 18.
The announcement follows warnings three weeks ago that workers at five Scottish luxury hotels run by the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) were under threat due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Group bosses blamed the drastic cuts on the impact of the Covid-19 crisis.
IHG started a redundancy consultation process with staff at its hotels in Edinburgh and Glasgow at the start of June.
As well as the Blythswood, they included Kimpton Charlotte Square, InterContinental The George and Crown Plaza in Edinburgh, and the Grand Central, in Glasgow.
The hotels have been closed since the lockdown was announced in late March and most of the staff have been furloughed.
The five hotels employ more than 600 staff between them.
Commenting on the shock news, a Unite the Union spokesman said on Friday: “The Intercontinental Hotel Group is one of the biggest and richest hotel chains in the World, having made £386m in clear profit last year alone.
“To sack up to 80% of their workforce in flagship hotels that they know will be opening up in the coming months is outrageous and possibly unlawful because we have a perfectly reasonable alternative called the Job Retention Scheme.
“The way in which the redundancy consultations have been carried out thus at their flagship Glasgow hotels - The Grand Central and The Blythswood have been neither genuine nor meaningful.
“They are bulldozing our members with very complex legal documents which have not even been translated into relevant languages for their large migrant workforce.
“Our members across IHG shall be putting forward their own alternative proposals to such devastating compulsory redundancies which include voluntary redundancies, annualised hour contracts and extended leave.”
As well as the five hotels directly managed by IHG there are 38 IHG branded hotels across Scotland operated by franchise owners.
A spokesperson for IHG said: "This is a very difficult time for our industry, we haven’t seen an impact on demand for hotels like this in our lifetime with travel restrictions, social distancing measures, closed borders and the cancellation of major sporting events, business conferences and family occasions.
"We have done everything to protect and retain jobs for as long as possible.
"Our IHG managed hotels in Scotland are currently closed and while we are looking forward to welcoming guests back when we can reopen, it will take time for travel and tourism to return to pre-coronavirus levels.
"As a result, we have launched a consultation to resize and restructure our hotel teams, which unfortunately is likely to involve some redundancies."
