Manoj Jha urges Piyush Goyal to save jobs of IRCTC hospitality supervisors amid pandemic

RJD MP Manoj Jha on Friday wrote a letter to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal regarding the termination of the services of IRCTC's hospitality supervisors following the end of their two-year contract, and urged him to save their jobs amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jha in his letter stated that hundreds of contractual Hospitality supervisors of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) who were hired by the railway company on April 23, 2019, for supervision of catering services, quality inspection of its trains as well as catering units of Indian Railway premises, are been categorically told by the IRCTC authorities to search for new jobs since their two-year contract is ending now.

The letter reads, "To our utter shock, 1 am informed by these employees from various locations that they have been categorically told by the IRCTC authorities to search for new jobs adding further that alter 20 days they would not be part of the service anymore. The feeble argument from the IRCTC is that they were hired on a two-year contract which is ending now."

Jha in his letter stated that these contractual IRCTC employees gave their best to the Indian railways even during the peak of the Covid-19 as they were actively engaged in the management and supervision of food delivery services in the Shramik special trains run by the Indian railways.

Requesting the Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to save the jobs of hundreds of hospitality supervisors engaged with IRCTC, Jha in his letter stated that all these supervisors who will be rendered jobless due to the termination of their contract are trained hoteliers with professional hospitality degrees, adding that the hotel industry is not in a condition to give them jobs.

The RJD MP in his letter said, "All these hospitality supervisors of IRCTC are trained hoteliers and many have professional hospitality degrees. We all know that the hotel industry is among the worst affected during the COVID crisis. Therefore it is unimaginable that they would be employed by the hotel industry amidst an unprecedented crisis."

"I remember during the course of intervention by me in the budget session of the parliament, you had emphatically assured that nobody shall be terminated from the job. I sincerely request you to please look into the matter with utmost urgency and save the jobs of these hundreds of hospitality supervisors engaged with IRCTC," read the concluding remarks of Jha's letter.

( With inputs from ANI )