Impact Of COVID-19, Hotels In Bali Stop Daily Workers

JAKARTA - The corona virus or COVID-19 which is spreading in a number of countries in the world, including Indonesia, is certainly influential in various industrial sectors, one of which is the tourism sector. This impact is also felt by various regions with tourist destinations that are in great demand by both foreign and domestic tourists, one of which is Bali.

The tourism sector is a sector whose performance is highly dependent on socio-political stability, security and the environment. If one of the stability factors is disturbed, then the tourism performance will also experience disruption, making it difficult to boost the tourism industry.

Based on PHRI data. currently in Bali the average hotel occupancy is only 20 percent, especially in areas that are visited by many individual travelers such as Kuta, Sanur, Legian, Ubud, Jimbaran. This condition also affects workers, even some hotels choose not to hire freelance employees.

Chairman of the Indonesian Hotel & Restaurant Association (PHRI) Hariyadi B. Sukamdani denied that due to the lack of tourist visits, some hotels have terminated their work rights (PHK). Even so, he confirmed, that there was a reduction in workers in some hotels.

"Actually, in hotels, not purely layoffs. There are three types of employees at the hotel, namely daily, contract and permanent. Now what is happening is that daily workers are not used. Because the company maintains cash flow," he said, in a press conference, in Senayan, Jakarta, Thursday, March 12.

Currently, said Haryadi, workers who are still retained by some hotels in Bali are contract and permanent employees. However, their working hours also have to change due to the lack of tourist visits.

"Now the company (is) trying to keep it down by 50 percent for operational labor costs. However, the costs are still large, we ask the OJK to relax loans to finance principal operations and loan interest," he said.

Not far from the hotel business, the restaurant business must also make efficiency in order to survive in the midst of this COVID-19 outbreak. However, because the number of workers is more on contract, it is not difficult to make adjustments.

"Restaurants are the same. There are indeed more contract employees. Relatively few, less complicated, less complicated than hotels. More adaptable regarding adjustments to the number of employees," he explained.