Hotel closed; workers in confusion
One of the Nepal’s premier five star hotel at Durbar Marg, Yak & Yeti was suddenly evacuated on Saturday night and closed. The reason behind the closure is still unknown.
Though the management were not available for comment, talking to Nepalnews Sunday morning, employees claimed the management took this action to evade implementation of the agreement between the management and the trade union of the hotel.
“We are still not sure why the management took this action. Not a any single person from the management is here at the hotel to talk with us, we just want to know the reasons behind it,” the hotel’s employee union secretary Manoj Kumar Khadka told Nepalnews.
“We want to know if the management wants to completely shut down the hotel or what their next step is. We will then decide what we do, whether to take legal action or otherwise," he added.
The hotel is completely empty but the workers are still on their duty. Electricity inside the rooms is cut off, water supply stopped and laundry service is at a halt. All upcoming programs are cancelled, including the Christmas and New Year's parties. The hotel is bearing almost 1.2 million rupees per day in losses due to the closure, Khadka told Nepalnews.
The hotel’s union and the employees had been pressuring management for implementation of the agreement between them under the mediation of the Ministry of Labour a few months back. The agreement consists a six percent increment in salaries and medical insurance of the workers. On this, Manoj said, “Instated of hiking the salary, the management is reducing it by 1.66 percent."
Almost 400 employees work at the hotel, including permanent and contract workers.
Sarita KC, supervisor of house keeping said, “I along with other women workers, have been working in this hotel for 10 years. We are confused as to what is going on.”
Till yesterday there was 40 percent occupacy. In the English new year 2006, there was 100 percent occupancy.
Yak & Yeti is Nepal’s largest foreign currency earning hotel for the last 10 years. nepalnews.com Kumar Shrestha Dec 25 05
