MEXICO CITY, Mexico. – Artists engaged as entertainers at the hotels in Cayo Santa María, in Villa Clara, have not been paid their salaries for a few months. This was confirmed by several sources to the independent medium 14ymedio on condition of anonymity.
“We who perform at the Meliá Cayo Santa María Hotel have not been paid in over two months. At the Grand Aston Las Brujas, they owe us two full months, and the same at the Grand Sirenis. As far as the Playa Hotel, which the Cuban government boasts it fully owns without having to share [profits] with a foreign company, they haven’t paid us since May,” laments one of the affected artists.
The source revealed the vulnerability they suffer since they have not protection from the company that represents them to claim their rights. “Those companies do nothing for us. What can they do for us if they belong to the State?” he added.
“When I as director of my group go to the Music Enterprise to show that an illegality is being committed, they answer always: “Who can sue Gaviota?”
Instead, they are recommended not to complain about anything on social media, and to just wait.
The report published by 14ymedio also states that entertainers must take transportation from their homes, some very far from the keys, and that they are not guaranteed a meal.
A 22-year-old dancer who works at one of Melia’s hotels in Cayo Santa María told 14ymedio that she had to request a leave of absence from the enterprise that represents her “because Meliá hasn’t paid me in three months and I have a little boy and cannot work without getting paid.”
“At first, they told us it was an organizational problem, that Meliá was negotiating several contracts with the enterprises that represent us due to the fact that those contracts had been agreed upon at a time when the occupancy expectations had been high, and that occupancy has not been attained,” she said.
This dancer states that she must perform whether there are one hundred people or only one. “If the hotel has not earned what the management expected, it cannot be that I take the brunt and not receive what is owed to me,” she further reflected.
Cayo Santa María is one of the most luxurious hotels on Cuba’s beaches. However, like with the rest of the country, it isn’t recovering. According to data published recently by the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI, by its Spanish acronym), Cuba welcomed 1’441,362 international travelers between January and March of this year.
Although this number is 177% higher than it was for the same period in 2022, it is still way below the numbers registered before the pandemic.
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