Partner alleged illegal hiring
Silver Heritage Group is getting off to a rocky start at its Tiger Palace casino resort in Bhairahawa, Nepal, which opened March 17.
The company has removed of one of its Nepali partners, Rajendra Bajgain, who alleged Silver Heritage was using illegal laborers. That move could threaten the operator’s second casino project at Dhulabari in Jhapa, where the company plans to build a five-star casino property.
AsiaOne.com reports that Hong Kong-based SVH, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, hopes to draw most of its clients from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Silver Heritage axed Bajgain in February, saying his “unauthorized disclosure, in addition to various other breaches of the local partner’s consultancy agreement, has led to sanctions being imposed by the company, including but not limited to the termination of his consultancy agreement.”
Bajgain went to Kathmandu District Court, which ordered Silver Heritage CEO and Managing Director Mike Bolsover not to terminate the agreement. The company has appealed to Patan High Court to vacate the order issued by the district court. Bajgain claimed that 22 foreign staffers at Tiger Palace were working without work permits. Seventeen have since left the country, but Nepali immigration officials could not determine if they were working illegally.
An unnamed foreign official working in Nepal said the process of getting a work permit in Nepal is very complicated. “When I first came to Nepal, I was granted a tourist visa. The process to obtain work permit takes almost three months. So, was I working illegally during the three-month period?” he asked.
Silver Heritage says it has created more than 1,000 jobs in Nepal to date, of which 95 percent are held by Nepalis. Silver Heritage also operates the Millionaire’s Club & Casino at Hotel Shangri La in Kathmandu.
