KOCHI: CITU-affiliated All Kerala Bar Hotels and Restaurant Employees Association (AKBHREA) has approached the Kerala Minimum Wage Advisory Committee demanding to fix the salary of employees working at bars and restaurants in the state. AKBHREA representatives appeared in the sitting held by the advisory committee the other day.
The Association has demanded to fix Rs 18,000 as the minimum salary for employees in bar hotels and restaurants. The working hours should be restricted to eight hours, it said. According to AKBHREA state general secretary Dibu Mangalassery, employees who have been working for the past several decades still don’t get proper salary and they are forced to work for longer hours.
In most cases, youngsters with hotel management degrees are taken as trainees and paid a meagre salary. Similarly, a majority of hotels does not provide food and accommodation facilities to the employees. In its petition to the Wage Advisory panel, AKBHREA alleged hotel workers are not made part of employees welfare fund.
Similarly, allowances like the annual bonus, house rent allowance, urban allowance and festival allowance are not given. While fixing the minimum salary, employees with years of experience should be given a proportional increase, the Association demanded. It also demanded the Labour Department to enhance enforcement activities by carrying out regular checking to ensure employees are not exploited by the bar and hotel owners.