Monthly salary of staffers further reduced to as low as Rs 2,000
KATHMANDU, JANUARY 27
Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) has reduced the wages of the staffers working in hotels under the association.
Signing a new agreement today, HAN has reduced the wages of workers compared to the previous agreement signed on July 12 of last year. The previous agreement between HAN and the trade unions had expired on December 31.
According to the new agreement, workers of five-star hotels and resorts will receive Rs 5,000 per month from now onwards against Rs 10,000 a month they were receiving earlier.
Similarly, workers of four-star hotels and resorts will receive Rs 4,000 per month while based on the previous agreement they had been receiving Rs 9,000 a month.
Likewise, workers of three-star hotels and resorts will receive Rs 3,000 per month and those employed in two-star hotels and resorts will receive Rs 2,500 per month.
Similarly, workers of one-star hotels and resorts will receive Rs 2,000 per month, while workers of tourist standard hotels and resorts can negotiate with their organisations for the wages and other facilities.
Today's agreement has further mentioned that the hotels and resorts will deploy their workers turn-wise. Not all workers will be on duty on a regular basis. And the workers who are not asked to report for duty will not be able to claim their wages. The agreement, however, has mentioned that the agreement will not be applicable for contract workers, trainees, interns, daily wage workers, part-time workers or outsourced workers.
Based on the agreement, hotels will guarantee staffers' employment however those wanting to leave their jobs will be able to.
And if any worker resigns without giving a one-month notice after the termination of this agreement, the hotel or the resort will cut off their other grants and facilities except the wages that they were supposed to receive.
According to a statement issued by HAN today, Shreejana Rana, president of HAN signed the agreement with presidents of three trade unions - Nepal Free Hotel Workers Union, All Nepal Hotel, Casino and Restaurant Workers Association and Nepal Tourism and Hotel Workers Union on Tuesday.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit the industry, hoteliers have faced severe problems in operating their hotels. Even though the industry is gradually recovering, the star-rated hotels have been claiming that it will take at least two years to bounce back completely.
Thus, due to the less income they have even started cutting off workers. Amid this, the second agreement was signed today between the HAN and the workers' unions.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 28, 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
