Order issue in Hotel Yak and Yeti strike case

Kathmandu, Dec 29-The Supreme Court on wednesday ordered the Ministry of Labour and Transport Management, the management of Hotel Yak and Yeti and its staffers Trade Union to attend a hearing next Wednesday before the apex court to decide whether or not to issue a stay order as demanded by the hotel management.

The SC ordered the Ministry and both the parties in the case to discuss over the demand of the hotel management which had filed a writ petition seeking the SC’s stay order to call off the strike. Following a initial hearing today, a single bench of justice Badri Kumar Basnet, issued the order. The bench also ordered the defendants to submit written explanations about the recent row between the management and the trade union within 15 days. The bench also issued the same order to ‘the arbitrators’ to clarify the issue.

Advocates Mithilish Kumar Singh and Komal Prakash Ghimire pleaded on behalf of the hotel management and sought the SC’s stay order on the issue, arguing that the hotel staffers have no right to launch such a strike as the Essential Services Act ‘prohibits’ such a strike call.The corporate advisor of the Hotel, Mahesh Lal Mishra, filed a writ petition on Monday seeking the SC’s intervention in the issue, claiming that the decision of the arbitrators could not be implemented due to the ‘weak economic condition’ of the hotel.

The petitioner claimed that the Hotel cannot implement the recommendations of the arbitrators formed under the chairmanship of joint government attorney Raj Narayan Pathak. The arbitrators had recommended the hotel to provide at least six per cent annual increment in salaries of the staffers and other types of benefits.