The Trade license issued by tourism department to all hotels and restaurants every year should have an additional clause that all hotels and Restaurant be requested to pay 10% service charge to hotel and restaurant employees.
Tourism department may be aware that the five star hotels in Goa employ ‘slave’ labour although their room rents are amongst the highest in the world. By ‘slave’ labour, means the minimum wages five star hotels in Goa pay is Rs.215 per day which is below subsistence level. No payment for leave. At this rate even in villages no unemployed youth and migrant labour is willing to work. Youth in five star hotels work for this meager amount with the hope that they will get permanent jobs but that never happens and they continue to get exploited all the time.
It is a misunderstanding to say hotel workers are well paid. There are large sections of workers in the hotel industry who are not paid well. Workers engaged in room service, sweepers, gardening, security and laundry are all contract workers. They are not well paid at all.
Payment of “Giving wage” is a concept accepted by the constitution of India but it has remained a faraway dream. Hotel workers are not even getting fair wages.
In India the hotel industry was paying service charge in a few five star hotels but this is no longer the case. They have discontinued the practice of paying the service charge which was in vogue before.
Our neighbouring countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Nepal as well as Europe also pay service charge. The hotel workers job seems to be a glamorous one from the outside but in fact they are often paid less compared to other industries.
By paying 10% service charge to hotel workers there would be no much impact on the profitability of the hotel because the burden with nil cost to the hotel company on the contrary the quality of service would get better, as this will be an incentive to workforce ushering in more business for the hotel.
The Goa Government should do its homework to formulate the tourism policy and it should bring benefits to local communities too.
