Closed restaurants resuming operations on Wednesday

KATHMANDU, Feb 10: Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal (REBAN), the umbrella organization of restaurants, Tuesday decided to open all 24 outlets of four restaurant chains that had remained closed from Friday.



REBAN took the decision following the meeting with management of the restaurants and workers at New Baneshwar on Tuesday evening. [break]



The managements of The Bakery Café, Hot Breads, ND´s Restaurant and Jazoo Café had closed the restaurants from Friday after the Maoist affiliated All Nepal Free Hotel and Restaurant Workers Union (ANHRWU) announced protest programs demanding pay hike and other demands. REBAN had said they won´t sit for talks unless the workers withdrew their protest plans.



"We will now sit for talks to discuss on demands put forth by the workers,” said Shyam Sundarlal Kakshapati, founder president of REBAN. “All closed outlets will open from Wednesday.” Kakshapati, however, hinted that there was no chance of increasing salary and allowance as demanded by the agitating workers.



Yam Bahadur Karki, president of the ANHRWU´s Bakery Café unit, said they would continue with their protest if agreement was not made on their demands. “Our demands are not that big. We just want a win-win situation for both the management and the workers,” he added.



REBAN had organized an extraordinary annual general meeting (AGM) on Tuesday to discuss on the demands raised by the workers and the shutdown of the restaurants. The agitating workers decided to call back their protests after the AGM concluded. A total of 65 restaurant entrepreneurs had expressed their solidarity with the management of the four restaurants, according to Kakshapati.



Kush Kumar Joshi, President of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) met with Shalik Ram Jamakattel, president of Maoist affiliated All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Revolutionary), on Tuesday to resolve the issue.



As per the earlier agreement, the workers cannot place any demand which puts extra financial burden to the management for three years. The management and workers had agreed to share amount generated from customers as service charge in 32:68 ratio, as per the agreement. But the workers have been claiming that the sharing of service charge is not transparent.

Related story

‘Ramen restaurants’ introduced in Kathmandu