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Kathmandu Saturday March 03, 2001 Falgun 20, 2057.
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HAN slams hotel workers’ strikes
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 2 - Four days after the Joint Central Action Committee of
hotel employees announced to stage fresh nation-wide strike from March 15 if their demand
of 10 per cent service charge is not met, Hotel Association Nepal (HAN) issuing a press
release today, exhorted that the strike would demolish the entire industry.
Terming the strike as ‘illegal’, HAN has enlisted the damages that
could be caused by the strike as varied. It has stated that the 1,500 daily average
tourist arrival will come down to zero; around Rs 460 thousand dollars per day will be
lost and the nation will lose about Rs 5 million being collected daily from the tourism
sector as value added tax (VAT).
Similarly, the daily transaction of around Rs 55 million in the tourism
industry will come to a halt as 350 travel agencies, 846 hotels, 400 trekking agents, 70
rafting companies and 600 restaurants will be closed.
Moreover, the strike will put around 1.5 million hotel employees and their
dependants in financial crisis, states the release.
Compared to other foreign holiday destinations, Nepal is already expensive.
It is only Nepali who think that Nepal is a cheap destination but tour operators have long
been facing difficulty in sending tourists to Nepal. Under such conditions, if the ten per
cent service charge is added, it will prove detrimental to the tourism industry, argues
HAN.
Above all, the practice will spread to other sectors like: health, education,
electricity etc., like an epidemic, warn hoteliers.
Service charge is not mandatory in any part of the world and so far as
transparency is concerned, all hotels get their accounts audited by government recognised
auditors. And the rumour that the big hotels are ready to implement the service charge is
unfathered, say the hotel entrepreneurs.
More than three weeks have been passed after the Ligal Committee submitted
its report to the government, and the government has failed to initiate dialogue and take
necessary measures to resolve the problem, charge the hoteliers. Hotel workers, on
Tuesday, announced their fresh protest program that includes nation-wide shut down of
hotels from March 15.
They have also flayed the unionists of violating the understanding they
reached earlier. They had agreed to wait the recommendations of the High Level Committee.
They, disapproving some of the recommendations of the committee, have announced the
strike.
"The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has become the prisoner of
indecision as it has not been able to bring the two parties together for discussion. The
government cannot shy away from its responsibility", states the release.
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