Hoteliers Ask Government to Declare Industry Essential

November 8, 2000
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Kathmandu, Nov.9: Hoteliers this week asked the government to declare the hotel industry an essential service and declare strikes illegal as workers threatened to go on a strike from November 19 demanding a compulsory 10 percent service charge on all bills.

As The Hotel Association of Nepal (HAN) met in an emergency session in the complex of the Nepal Tourism Board Thursday about 500 workers with clenched fists chanted slogans and paraded past the building threatening to go on a strike.

” Outside forces are inciting hotel workers to strike and destroy the tourism industry,” a statement issued after the meeting said.

A spokesman after repeated questioning said the ruling Nepali Congress party and the main opposition in parliament, the Nepal Communist Party( Unified Marxist Leninist ) were inciting labourers.

” We have talked with the union leaders and they are adamant,” a spokesman of HAN said.
The service charge will force visitors to pay a total of 23.2 percent tax on all bills.
” This will be counterproductive, ” a statement said.

Nearly 200,000 workers directly benefit from the industry that earned $ 168 million in 1999.
Hotel workers said they will sign an agreement with the management to withdraw the charge if it is counterproductive.