The Fort Young Hotel and Dive Resort, part of GEMS Holdings Limited, is the latest business to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. All over the world companies have had to lay off staff due to the slow down in tourism caused as a direct result of closed borders and social distancing brought on by the pandemic.

In a video which surfaced, CEO of GEMS, Gregor Nassief, explained to employees that the company had tried its best to keep as many of them as possible on payroll especially since Government had not yet informed of a stimulus package. However, since the Government has made known its stimulus package for employees and that it is not yet known how long the tourism industry will continue to be affected by the pandemic, the hotel will move to lay off staff.

He said, “In the current scenario, we have realized that the recovery would take much longer and also comforted by the fact that government’s stimulus will give a level of income support, we now think that it is the appropriate time to move to a layoff scenario. One of the key reasons for that is that we don’t know how long that will last”.

Nassief also reminded staff that there exists the option to take a redundancy package after six weeks of being laid off.

Staff of the Fort Young Hotel were on no pay leave prior to being laid off.