Hotel, aviation sector hardest hit by coronavirus - ICU leader

General Secretary of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) Solomon Kotei has revealed that the hotel and the aviation sectors of the economy are the areas of most affected by the impact of Coronavirus.

He explained on the Sunrise morning show hosted by Alfred Ocansey on 3FM 92.7 Wednesday that these sectors mostly rely on foreigners and others who travel around the world.

Therefore, jobs have been lost following the closure of borders and other entry points into the country.

As part of measures to curtail the spread of the virus in Ghana, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Ado closed all entry borders and points into the country “until further notice”.

Mr Kotei said: “The hardest hit so far is the hospitality sector and the aviation sectors because these businesses they have over 80 percent of their activity being supported by foreigners who come in and those who actually give them the rate of occupancies in their various hotels.

“As of these times that the planes are not coming in, what we have experienced in this sector is that those who supply the planes with foods and juice have closed down, they been declared redundant and be paid off. So the job losses begin from this particular angle.

“For them, both the casual workers and the regular workers had been sorted out and we are concluding negotiations to get them paid off.

“To the big hotels, they are hoping that at least by September some kind of level of activity that can give them self-sustaining operations will take off.

“We have said as ICU that around September-October, we will see the real impact of COVID-19 in the area of job losses.”