Considering the limited support available for hospitality workers in India following the COVID- 19 pandemic, Zurich based Michael Butler, former corporate director of food and beverage for Europe and India at Hyatt Hotels Corporation has decided to start a fund to support hospitality employees living in India.

Butler is asking for support from anyone across the globe who would like to contribute by donating what they can afford.

Starting from July 20, spread across several days, Butler will also walk 265 km from Zurich to Geneva, wearing a chef coat to show solidarity and support for the hospitality colleagues. He believes this will help raise more awareness and generate contributions for those who are in need.

"Remember, India does not have furloughs or the social security department that provides income or stimulus checks from the government," said Butler, describing his initiative on his LinkedIn page.
He said India has been very close to his heart for many reasons and he has been fortunate to have been able to work with great minds in the field of hospitality in the country.

"I have seen and read various news articles and guest sentiment reports. I came across one that had mentioned many restaurants and hotels have been forced to close again with the risk of 30% of them being shut permanently. I started to make my own enquiries and could see that the Indian Hospitality workers were running out of money."

Butler said he then came up with the idea of walking from Zurich to Geneva. "I hope that through this initiative, we can support many Indian hospitality workers who have lost their jobs – I am hoping we can demonstrate that globally we can get through tough times together and show that hospitality is an industry where people can pull together to help others colleagues who are going through tough times.”

The fund has been set up online and the process will entail the requesting employee submitting an email with an attachment of their relieving letters from past employers. Preference would be given to non-management workers and those who were laid off the earliest. Butler said he will also validate the claims with local support teams to ensure the neediest and deserving ones get support at the earliest.

He has also created the F&B support forum group on LinkedIn and will also seek the support from the forum members to validate the requests for aid and help generate some funds. Based on the application requests, Butler will work with the local support teams to validate the requests and will grant the aid to employees who have been out of a job for the longest time owing to the pandemic and those who will benefit the most from the aid amount. In cases where there are multiple earning members in the same family, the fund will support the ones who are single earners.

The fund has been created in late June, and Butler will officially launch it through the walk on July 20.
The status of the fund collection can be seen in real-time. Those interested can also donate through Paypal.