POKHARA, Sept 12: Fulbari Resort, which saw series of protests by trade unions in recent years, has laid off all its 117 employees, finally. The hotel management has said that operation of the hotel will remain completely shut for next few months. 

The five-star hotel in the lake city of Pokhara was shut down since February after failure to address the demands of trade unions. 

General Manager of the resort Samir Kapil confirmed that the resort, which was shut down for about six months, has now laid off its all staff effective from Saturday as they could not meet their demands. 

“We repeatedly tried to forge consensus but we failed and decided on layoff,” added Kapil. The resort has paid about Rs 30 million to the staff and terminated all the contracts signed with them. 

Vice-president of Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Trade Union, Nawaraj Giri, said that they were compelled to receive the layoff packages and leave jobs, because the hotel management denied addressing their demands.  

“All the 117 staff members have left the hotel,” said Giri adding that only some guards and caretaker officials are at the hotel. 

All the staff members were given basic salary and other facilities for the period of hotel closure.  

“The hotel has paid us in two installments by providing us two bank cheques. The first (for 40 percent of the total amount) can be encashed immediately while the other (for remaining 60 percent) can be converted into cash by next two months,” added Giri. 
The amounts the employees got also include social security fund and employees’ provident fund.

General manager Kapil said that the resort will remain shut for two months and maintenance works will be carried out. “We have planned to resume the operation of the hotel by the end of this year.”

The hotel needs 200 employees to run it. “We are sad to announce the temporary shutdown of the hotel,” Kapil said. 

Chairman of Paschimanchal Hotel Association Pokhara Bikal Tulachan said it was unfortunate that the resort could not sort out the differences and had decided to shut down temporarily. 

Tulachan expressed worries that the incident may cast a negative impact on the tourism industry of the country. The 165-room resort, spread in a sprawling 209 ropanis of land, came into operation in 1998 with a total investment of Rs 3 billion.

 
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