66 employees at one of India’s most exclusive golf clubs in Delhi fired amid pandemic

New Delhi:

Sixty-six employees of the elite Delhi Golf Club have been fired due to pressure to win amid the coronavirus blockade, club management said. The club is one of the most exclusive in India, with a waiting list of up to 25 years. Members include senior bureaucrats like Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and politicians like Rajiv Pratap Rudy, former Vice President Hamid Ansari and former cricketer Kapil Dev. In the past, Congress Leader Kamal Nath, the head of the Congress Party Nationalist Sharad Pawar and BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Arun Jaitley were also members of the club.

“It is a big problem for us. I am the only one who earns the bread and I have lost my job. I will have to become a beggar on the street with a bowl,” said Rafique Ahmed, 45, a waiter who was put to bed. outside together with 65 others.

Many of the 59 kitchen staff members and seven managers who have been fired staged a protest outside the club on Sunday, demanding that their jobs be returned.

While Rafique earned Rs 50,000 a month, the kitchen supervisor Ravi Pande, 53, earned Rs 80,000 a month and had been working here for 26 years. He is concerned about his three teenage daughters.

“I have been fired and for a year I will not get a job anywhere in such bad economic conditions. How will I raise my children in such a situation? They will starve,” said Pande.

When the reduction was considered, former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, who is also a member of the club, had opposed the measure and in a letter to the club president said: “Facing COVID-19, when the country is facing a crisis Biblical proportions, should we move in this direction? Right now, the staff won’t get any jobs. “

While employees claimed that management did not inform them early enough about the layoffs, management said employees had been receiving extremely high wages and refused to negotiate when earnings declined.

“Unfortunately, food and beverage services have been steadily losing and the main reason is the extremely high salaries that we have been paying the staff as a result of a major salary agreement that we entered into in 2015,” said Delhi Golf Club Senior President RS Bedi.

“In the last five years, we have lost around Rs 5 crore. We tried to tell the employees that they needed to understand the financial difficulties, but I think there was absolutely no understanding of our situation. We negotiated for a month, but they were not ready. for wage cuts, “said Major Bedi.

“Now onwards, in terms of a compensation package, we have made a payment of a total of Rs 11 crore to the 66 employees. The highest payment is around Rs 39 lakh and an average of around Rs 15 -16 lakh per person “So we’ve actually put that kind of money in the staff’s pockets,” said the club president.