The federation of services, mobility and consumer affairs at the UGT union yesterday denounced the German real-estate businessman, Matthias Kühn, over the dismissal of two waiters and a housekeeper at Palma's Pueblo Español.
The founder of Kühn & Partner is the owner of the Pueblo Español. His wife, Norma Duval, is the director of the complex. Former employees are critical of her for not having had the dignity to have explained the financial situation with the business and for not having personally informed them that they were being laid off.
The union says that Kühn has been responsible for the collapse of the Pueblo Español. Where there were once forty employees, there are now just box office staff and a maintenance man. The three employees dismissed, the union claims, have not been paid off in the way that they should have been.
These workers took their case to the arbitration tribunal in the middle of last month. A representative of Kühn & Partner told them that the businessman didn't have the money to meet the financial obligations of termination.
The union is considering legal action to reverse the dismissals and is also contemplating staging a protest at the Pueblo Español. It accuses Kühn of having stripped the complex's cultural and entertainment content, noting that he has started the process for the town hall to permit a change of use to residential accommodation. "He intends to carry out a real-estate bailout for the Pueblo Español. He wants to use it for houses."