The Grupo Playa Sol story continued to dominate the news once again this week, and it was good news for people working for the hotel chain, as the recently appointed Administrator, Javier Perelló, confirmed there would be no problems with their salaries for the month of June, which they will receive before the 10th July. He also confirmed he had been able to negotiate sufficient funds for back payments to be made to workers still due to be paid for overtime carried out over the past six months, although this would be remunerated in monthly instalments at a rate of €500 until the debt has been cleared.
All of the parties involved in the GPS case, such as the Tax Office, Social Security, the Trade Unions and even Fernando Ferré’s lawyer, are in agreement that an outside auditor should be appointed to assess the company. According to the lawyer working on behalf of the unions on the case, Manuel Pomar, “an in-depth analysis of the economic viability of the Company to ascertain what it has, what it spends and what it receives in income needs to be made before further decisions can be made”. The lawyer, after a meeting with Perelló, claimed he was optimistic, as most of the hotels are completely full. He also urged the workforce to join the union concerned, the UGT, as they have far more strength to negotiate, and to carry on working “as though nothing has happened”.
Last week the initial estimate of the amount of money owed by GPS was in the region of €250 – €260 million, and the assets are conservatively valued at €310 million, so the Group is therefore not bankrupt. The future of establishments at present being rented by the Group are in a far more delicate situation, in that, once the rental agreement has ended, in theory they should be handed back to the original owners, although sources close to the case confirmed that if a mortgage had been taken out on the property, the former owners may not be willing to take it back.