CPI(M) MP seeks urgent wage revision for Srinagar hotel staff

New Delhi, Nov 15: A CPI(M) MP has sought urgent wage revision for the employees of Srinagar's Centaur Hotel, a unit of Air India subsidiary Hotel Corporation of India, saying it has been pending for eight years and the staffers were getting around one-fourth of the wages compared to their counterparts in the national carrier.

Seeking talks with the representatives of the Centaur Hotel Employees Union, Tapan Sen, a Rajya Sabha member, has shot off a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju saying the union has been seeking revision of wages and other benefits which have been "overdue for eight long years."

"Actually, the wage revision of the concerned employees was supposed to take place with effect from January 1, 2007 along with their colleagues in other wings of Air India, of which the Centaur Hotel at Srinagar is a wholly-owned subsidiary.

As a result, the Centaur Hotel employees have been getting around one-fourth of the wages compared to their counterparts in Air India," he said.

"You will appreciate, such wild discrimination among the employees under the umbrella of Air India, or in that matter under your Ministry, is unwarranted deserving early corrective action in the interest of fairness and propriety," Sen said.

The CPI(M) MP said the Ministry should "appreciate the gravity of the issue and intervene on a priority basis" to ensure that the management starts "dialogue with the Centaur Hotel Employees Union for reasonable wage revision for the concerned employees, which has already been delayed inordinately."

PTI