Costly Battle
THE hotel service charge row looks far from over. The deadline issued by the
hotel workers’ unions on introduction of service charge was February 11, Sunday.
There was much trepidation in the travel trade circle that the recurrence of the kind of
strike two months ago when the hotel industry faced a virtual shut-down, would further
bring about a dent on the tourism industry. Pronouncements from both the hotel workers and
owners prior to this deadline had done nothing to assuage fears that things could suddenly
get bad like it did two months ago. The Sunday deadline has, however, been mercifully
extended to further five days by the two hotel workers’ unions who have joined hands
to press for their largely one-point agenda. The Joint Central Action Committee, after a
marathon meeting on Monday evening, has decided to wait for five more days for the
government to make its decision on the service charge issue. The employees’ unions
decided to relax their deadline ostensibly because of the "sensitivity of the tourism
industry". Sensitivity of the tourism industry is nothing to be taken lightly. It is
so sensitive that the repercussions of the hotel closure two months ago are still
reverberating and will continue to reverberate for many days to come. Negative fallout of
an ill-thought-out decision is felt in the tourism industry for prolonged periods of time.
The high-level committee, formed by the government to look into the issue, was to submit
its report Tuesday. A sneak preview of the report indicates that one of its
recommendations would call for regulating tips in hotels and not actually introducing
service charge. Reacting to what may be coming, workers have said they want nothing less
than a service charge. If the reported recommendations of the high-level committee turns
out to be true, it seems highly likely that the hotel service charge row will enter into
even more turbulent times. The new deadline from the unionists is February 17. Travel
trade people would sincerely wish that the report would put an end to the row and that it
would be business as usual again at the hotels and that the coming days would not see
hotel workers making good on their threats of bringing about total stoppage of the
industry. This costly battle must be sorted out before things go out of hand again. Wiser
sense must prevail. And the government must play the role of an effective intermediary.
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