Devyani International Nepal - the local franchisee of the eatery chains - had shut five food outlets in Kathmandu on August 14, citing manhandling of managerial staff by the workers.[break]
The company´s top management and All Nepal Hotel and Restaurant Workers´ Union-Revolutionary (ANHWU-R) affiliated to CPN-Maoist had on Thursday agreed to reopen the outlets from Sunday after signing the agreement.
Yogendra Kumal, joint coordinator of All Nepal Trade Union Federation (Revolutionary); Tika Subedi, vice president of ANHWU-R; Nawaraj Bhatta, president of ANHRWU-R´s Devyani International Nepal unit and Vishnu Reddy, country manager of Devyani International, had signed the pact.
As per the agreement, both sides will respect the rules and regulations of the company, paving the way for the management to take action against those who create unlawful problems in the company. Similarly, the management has agreed to respect the trade union rights.
“All the outlets reopened from Sunday,” Bhatta said, adding: “The management has agreed to respect the existing labor laws and Trade Union Act that recognize our rights for collective bargaining.”
Bhatta said that the trade union will make sure that all the staff obey the rules and regulations of the company and will not object if the management takes action against those violating the company´s rules.
According to senior managerial staff at KFC Duarbarmarg, the company suffered a loss of around Rs 30 million. “If calculated on the basis of our daily transactions, we suffered a loss of around Rs 30 million. This also includes loss of stock of perishable goods,” the staff said.
The five outlets used to record average daily turnover of Rs 800,000.
Devyani International Nepal runs KFC, Pizza Hut and Cream Bell outlets at Durbarmarg and KFC and Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD) at Bluebird Mall, Tripureshwar.
The company has 180 people on its payroll.