Staff accuse club of taking advantage of the lockdown; management says discussions underway
NSCI is being used as a quarantine centre with a 500-bed capacity
The National Sports Club of India (NSCI), among the richest in the city, has not paid salaries to its employees for the month of April. NSCI has more than 600 staff including 400 permanent employees. The employees have warned the club management to pay their pending salary immediately or they would stage a protest outside the club.
Speaking to mid-day, an NSCI employee on condition of anonymity, said, "We usually get our salary on the first of every month. But this time the club has not paid us yet nor has it declared any date for payment. We complained to the club management via email on May 4 and also spoke with MLA Sachin Ahir who assured us he would resolve the issue."
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Another employee said, "The club is only taking advantage of the lockdown and ignoring our payment. We have approached Maharashtra Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh vice president Sunil Ahir who is regularly conducting meetings with club management."
"We are regularly conducting meetings with the club management, yet they haven't paid its 600 employees. It is illegal to not pay staff during the lockdown. They aren't even giving us a proper date on which they will pay. If they don't release salaries in the next three days, we will take stringent action against them," Sunil Ahir said.
When contacted, NSCI club chairman, Kamlesh Talreja said, "We are coordinating with the staff and union about salaries. We are also negotiating the salary with them and conducting regular meetings."
The club has memberships of high-profile people such as Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Ambani and several famous personalities.
According to sources, a normal membership of NSCI club costs Rs 95 lakh while the corporate membership is Rs 1.94 crore. This club also has a branch in Delhi and both clubs including Mumbai have more than 21,000 members.
Currently, due to the COVID-19 crisis, the NSCI has been temporarily turned into a 500-bed isolation-cum-diagnostic and research centre for treating COVID-19 patients.
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