India: Luxury hotel workers boycott overtime in fight against precarious work

An overtime boycott by 530 union members at The Leela Hotel in Mumbai entered its second week as the campaign for casual workers’ rights at one of the city’s most expensive luxury hotels continues.

The boycott was launched on January 25 as part of the union’s campaign to secure permanent jobs for 70 workers employed continuously as casuals for more than 10 years. The casual workers face constant insecurity and discrimination and are denied the rights and benefits enjoyed by permanent workers.

The union, which represents 80% of the total workforce, organized the overtime boycott to demonstrate that instead of excessive working hours and more casuals the company must create more permanent jobs to cope with increasing workloads. The campaign is supported by the IUF-affiliated Hotel Employees Federation of India (HEFOI).