Mayakoba Resorts Accused of Illegally Withholding Up to 35% of Worker Tips

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — The Mayakoba hotel complex is illegally withholding between 30 and 35 percent of its employees’ tips, claiming the money as a service payment before Mexico’s tax authority, according to workers at the resort.

Staff say the management of the Rosewood, Banyan Tree and Alila hotels, all located inside the complex on the Riviera Maya coast, has refused to explain how those accounts are handled.

Union presses for answers

Uri Carmona Islas, a union commissioner for the CROC labor federation, said the hotels have resisted clarifying the reason for the retentions, which he said should not be taxed under Mexican law.

“We are holding meetings with the workers’ committees to clarify the issue of the tip retention,” he said. “There is resistance on the part of the company when it comes to declaring what is being withheld from non-union and unionized staff.”

Carmona Islas said the state CROC leader, Martín de la Cruz Gómez, has instructed the union to defend the workers’ tips, and that it will keep up the pressure until the companies disclose the criteria they apply and report them to the SAT, Mexico’s tax administration service.

He said the practice affects the benefits of roughly 35 percent of the workers at the three hotels.

“What has to happen is that this payment has to be released, because it is not part of the worker’s salary, so it affects them in terms of Social Security, the National Workers’ Housing Fund Institute (Infonavit), and it is not taken into account when a severance payment is calculated,” Carmona Islas said.

July protest brought promises, union says

On July 31, workers at the complex staged a demonstration against the tax deductions applied to their tips. After the protest, hotel management pledged to make those funds transparent, but the union says that commitment has not been fulfilled.

Carmona Islas said the situation appears to be limited to Mayakoba, since other hotels in the Riviera Maya do not apply the same retention.