Siliguri, Oct. 14: The stalemate over bonus rates at two leading hotels here continues with the owner of one of them claiming that he is not being allowed to enter the hotel premises, which is also his home, without feeling threatened.
Gurmeet Singh Saluja, the owner of Saluja Residency and Tara Hotel, has also claimed that the staff of the hotels had taken control of the cash boxes and distributed the earnings among themselves.
However, the Citu unit leader of Saluja Residency, Naresh Chandra Ray, who is also a kitchen supervisor and staff member of the hotel for the past 18 years, denied the allegation that the owner was not being allowed to enter the premises.
?His family members are entering and leaving whenever they want to. We are not restricting them or Mr Saluja at all,? said Ray.
He also denied that the cash box had been taken over. ?We have handed over the day?s collections to the manager, Subrata Pal.?
The whole problem stems from the rate of bonus that Saluja has fixed for his staff this year.
The 8.33 per cent bonus rate that he had granted had not been accepted by the 100-odd staff at Saluja. ?Last year, we got 10.5 per cent, despite a closure of 64 days during Kali Puja. This year we got only 8.33 while other hotels have given between 14. 6 and 17.6 per cent,? said Ray.
The owner, however, alleged that of late the staff members had been behaving badly. ?You cannot afford to have staff who behave in such a way in the hospitality industry. I have therefore decided to give them lower bonus this year,? said Saluja.
On October 6, several hotels in the town had remained closed following a one-day token strike called by Siliguri Hotel Owners? Association. Though all 200 members of the association were expected to participate in the bandh, many of them, like Cindrella, Heritage and Manila, conducted business as usual.
The strike had been called to protest against ?militant trade unionism? in four Siliguri hotels ? Hotel Mount View and Hotel Rajdarbar, which have been closed for the past three months, and Hotel Saluja and Hotel Tera, which are facing problems relating to bonus and increment of wages.
