Cameron House hotel closes fine dining restaurant
- Published
Tamburrini and Wishart at Cameron House was founded by Scottish chefs Paul Tamburrini and Martin Wishart
A luxury hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond has closed its fine dining restaurant.
Cameron House reopened in May 2021 following a major fire and named its new flagship restaurant after leading Scottish chefs Paul Tamburrini and Martin Wishart.
The Unite union said 12 staff now at risk of redundancy have yet to be offered alternative employment.
But Cameron House said it expected to keep more than 60% of the workforce.
The five-star hotel, which has hosted guests including US President Barack Obama and U2 singer Bono, only reopened in September 2021 after a multi-million pound restoration.
It followed a major fire in December 2017 which claimed the lives of Richard Dyson, 38, and his partner Simon Midgley, 32, from London.
A spokesperson for the hotel told BBC Scotland News it had followed legal redundancy procedures for Tamburrini & Wishart staff.
But Unite claims workers were given less than a month's notice of the closure, removed from the staff system and put on gardening leave.
It said workers were told not to come back to work on Monday - two weeks before the restaurant was supposed to close.
The union previously criticised the prestigious hotel for distributing tips "unfairly" among staff.
Zach Brotherton is the head chef of the fine dining restaurant
Head chef Zach Brotherton said the restaurant was open as normal for a busy service on a Saturday night.
He said: "We closed were Sunday, Monday, Tuesday as usual - but on Monday morning we've all had emails telling us we're on gardening leave and the restaurant was closed.
"It's quite obvious they had no real intention of keeping us on when they put us on gardening leave and kicked me out of my work emails and now none of us can access any of the systems."
'Very unprofessional'
Restaurant manager Miroslava Senanova said staff tried to find out whether the restaurant would reopen as normal on Wednesday but did not hear back.
She added: "We find it very unprofessional.
"If the hotel decides to close the restaurant, we can respect that decision.
"But it could have been made in a better way to help our team prepare for that.
"There were no negotiations, no meetings, just an announcement."
Melanie Briones said she believed the restaurant was doing well
Assistant restaurant manager Melanie Briones joined the team in 2021 for its grand reopening.
"I could not believe it when I heard it," she said. "What a lack of respect to our guests, our team, our suppliers.
"There was no communication before that, nothing was said about the financial numbers if we weren't doing good.
"We don't believe it's right because the restaurant has never had full control of the finances - this was always shared with the hotel to manage it."
Bryan Simpson, Unite's lead hospitality organiser, said the hotel management had "refused to consider reasonable alternatives to redundancy" and "steamrolled ahead" with the closure.
He added: "This confirms to us that the company has no intention of considering any alternatives to avoid mass redundancy, in complete contradiction to well established employment law."
'Meeting legal obligations'
The restaurant said it was holding meetings to find redeployment for staff within the hotel and claimed some staff members had already been offered new roles.
A spokesperson for Cameron House said: "We are confident that should the team wish to take up the roles offered, with no change to their existing terms and conditions, we have roles available.
"We expect more than 60% of the team to be employed across the resort.
"We are meeting all legal obligations in respect of consultation times. The teams were informed on 4 October of our proposal to close from 31 October.
"We have complied with all legal obligations and followed standard redundancy process."
The spokesperson added staff IT access was suspended after a confidentiality breach.
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