Team urged to boycott hotels

England's cricket team has rejected pleas for it to boycott a Pakistani hotel chain where staff fighting for union representation have allegedly been sacked, bullied and accused of being involved in murder.

The Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) wrote to the team urging it not to stay in Pearl Continental Hotels when it tours Pakistan this winter.

The England Cricket Board said it thought the Pakistan Cricket Board had already booked the players into these hotels and it was unlikely the booking would be cancelled.

Pearl Continental has five-star hotels in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar, all in Pakistan.

The dispute is between members of the Pearl Continental Hotels' Employees Trade Union Federation (PCHETUF) and Pearl Continental's management team.

According to the TGWU, 80 staff have been dismissed from the hotel in Lahore and five from that in Peshawar.

When, in a separate incident, the human resources manager in Karachi was killed by armed thugs, the management allegedly tried unsuccessfully to implicate the union in the murder.

Malik Sher Ahmed, president of the PCHETUF, has announced he plans to set himself on fire in protest at the behaviour of the management.

A spokesman for the England Cricket Board said: "This is the first we have heard of this and we do not want to get involved, but it does seem to be an internal dispute.

"It is unlikely we will change our plans. These hotels meet the required standard and we have used them before."

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 17 August 2000