Kathmandu, January 7:

Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) in a press statement today voiced concern over activities of trade union members, such as playing politics at the workplace and halting work in hotels of Pokhara. “Though hotels agreed to the government decision concerning the minimum wage policy, the workers’ union in Pokhara’s hotels is staging protest programmes,” Madhab Om Shrestha, excutive director of HAN said adding they were trying to resolve the workers’ problems through talks and had formed a team for it.

The union has demanded a flat increment of Rs 1,300 for all in minimum wage given to hotel workers, which is against the norms of the Labour Act. Growing labour disputes in the hotel sector pose risk to its development and create hurdles in the tourism industry too, he said adding that the nature of work, salary and facilities for hotel workers is different from that of workers in the industrial sector. Hotel workers get service charge aside from their monthly salary, said Shrestha.