Panaji: The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the Hotel Employees Federation of India (HEFOI) on Saturday objected to the move of the Union Consumer Affairs Ministry to discontinue payment of service charge in hotels and restaurants on the ground that it violates consumer laws.
“The service charge has been in vogue in India and across the world for over a century. The wages paid to hotel employees even in the five-star hotels is very low, and the employees mostly survive on service charge or tips,” said Subhash George, national secretary, HEFOI, and Christopher Fonseca, general secretary, AITUC (Goa), in a joint statement.
The statement said, in 1957, a parliamentary committee was set up under the Tourism Ministry, which had recommended payment of 10% service charge to all hotel employees.
“It is, therefore, shocking that Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan is oblivious to this historic decision. He is naively continuing to send tweets asking the customers not to pay service charge and thereby coming in the way of hotel employees earning their livelihood,” said Mr. George.
The AITUC and the HEFOI have called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and defend the decision taken in 1957 and make it legal to pay 10% service charge to all hotel employees.
