Rosewood Mayakoba Offers to Review Tip Withholdings After Worker Protest

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — After a weekend protest by workers at the Rosewood Mayakoba resort, the luxury hotel has put forward a proposal that could end its practice of withholding taxes from employees’ tips — a practice the local union says is illegal.

The proposal will be reviewed by tax specialists, according to the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Farmers (CROC), which backed the protest. Union leaders said the company’s offer aims to resolve a dispute over the tax withheld from tips, which the union has long argued is unlawful.

“There is a proposal being analyzed fiscally so that the withholdings stop, because withholding the tax on tips is illegal,” said Uri Carmona Islas, the CROC’s union commissioner for the Riviera Maya. “We are going to listen to it because we can’t close ourselves off to dialogue.”

Carmona said the proposal will be examined by a tax expert to find a solution that respects workers’ labor rights.

The dispute had been brewing for weeks before the protest. Carmona said the trigger was the hotel’s refusal to allow a lawyer onto the property to conduct a labor consultation required under the procedure set by the Federal Center for Labor Conciliation and Registration. He described the move as interference in a fully legal proceeding.

After the refusal, workers held a vote, and nearly all of the resort’s approximately 400 employees supported the union’s position. Only two or three voted against continuing the action.

Carmona said the movement will continue until a final solution is reached, because the percentage deducted from tips represents a significant blow to the incomes of hundreds of families.

He also noted that tips are not the only point of contention. Workers previously complained about profit-sharing payments that in some cases amounted to only a few days of minimum wage — an outcome Carmona called “incongruous” for a luxury hotel with high rates and high occupancy. Management also refused a compensatory bonus requested by employees, adding to the unrest.

The conflict directly affects more than 400 workers at Rosewood Mayakoba, but Carmona said more than 1,000 employees across two other hotels dealing with the same issue could be affected. Even employees in positions of trust joined the protest, he said, arguing that management’s decisions had hurt their income and working conditions.

Despite the mobilization, the protest barely disrupted hotel operations. Carmona said the company made arrangements to maintain guest services, with only some delays in breakfast service.

He reiterated that blocking the entry of the lawyer represented a setback in the relationship between the two sides.

“It can’t be like that,” he said. “It reminds me of practices from decades ago; when one party exhausts dialogue, the situation changes completely.”

Carmona explained that workers democratically select a delegate to distribute tips and decide whether to receive payment in cash or by bank deposit, although handling large amounts of cash carries additional risks.

He said the CROC will not consider the conflict resolved until workers get a satisfactory outcome.

“The workers are not alone,” he said. “We will go all the way because this is a matter of labor justice.” He added that the union has the backing of Secretary General Martín de la Cruz and its full executive committee.