County Hall settles language dispute

The Marriott Hotel County Hall in London and Communi-Cater, a language training company, have settled a dispute over an unpaid bill before it reached the small claims court.

Sarah Cooper, director of Communi-Cater, said the hotel refused to pay a £232 bill. The costs were allegedly for two days of work it conducted in March to assess staff in preparation for English language courses. The hotel then decided not to run the courses after its training budget was cut.

The hotel paid the bill last month. Jan Marshall, human resources manager, said: "We made a commercial decision. It was more economical to pay than to make a case of it."

Marshall said that the assessment costs would have been waived if the courses had gone ahead. She added that thein-house language training for the hotel's foreign staff had been "temporarily shelved", but that staff could attend courses run by local authorities.