The strike has started to affect the operations of the hotels in the peak season when they are operating full house.
Mainly, the workers affiliated to Maoist-aligned All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Trade Union (ANHRTU) have launched the strike by working with black bands on their arms. The strike has begun from Hyatt Regency and Shangrila Hotel.
“The strike has started to show its impact on the hotels operations,” Madhav Om Shrestha, executive director of Hotel Association Nepal (HAN), told myrepublica.com. Hoteliers, moreover, tied up the strike with the ongoing protests of UCPN (Maoist) and expressed fear of it flaring up to unpleasant size.
Raju Bikram Shah, senior general manager of Shangrila Hotel, said the management had not received formal demands from the workers, and hence, has personally requested them not to launch strike. “This could tarnish the country´s image among visitors,” he added.
However, Shiva Ram Thapa, corporate affairs president of Hotel Yak and Yeti, said the agitating trade union had handed over its 19-point demand to the management before the Dashain festival. He stated that the management would hold talks with the workers in December.
Shekhar Rana, vice president of Hyatt Regency, too, told myrepublica.com that the management had started talks with the workers to end the strike.
HAN, meanwhile, has tagged the strike by the trade union as a move that goes against the agreement it signed with the management. It was referring to the agreement that the workers signed with hoteliers on December 30, 2006, going by which they imposed 10 percent service charge, agreeing to share 68 percent, 30 percent and 2 percent of it between workers, management and HAN.
“Placing of demands for salary hike and dearness allowance even while this agreement is fully into implementation is a sheer breach of that agreement,” HAN´s Shrestha said. He also noted that the demands was unjustifiable especially as hotel workers are already drawing salary and perks better than workers of any other industrial sector.
According to the statistics of HAN, five star hotel workers are presently drawing Rs 9,050 as salary, dearness allowance and food allowance. They are also receiving additional Rs 6,000 as earning from the service charge. Four star hotel workers draw Rs 10,560 on an average. Likewise, workers in resort draw Rs 10,000 every month, while three star hotel workers draw an average of Rs 7,500 every month.
However, the trade union officials have tagged their demand as fair and justifiable, referring to the hike in salary of government employees that came into effect from this fiscal year.
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