As subsequent waves of the pandemic have continued to affect the tourism sector in Uganda, hotels are operating but with very low occupancy. Despite the many challenges, IUF affiliate HTS-Union is successfully negotiating new collective bargaining agreements with the world’s largest hotel company, Marriott, including important rights for workers under COVID-19.
New agreements have been signed at the Protea Hotel by Marriott, Entebbe as well as at the Sheraton Kampala with important gains including:
- guaranteed salary in case of a future lockdown
- recall rights for workers laid off due to COVID-19
- increased retirement, redundancy and severance benefits
- new provisions to fight against gender-based violence and harassment
HTS-Union has also negotiated a Recognition Agreement with a new international hotel, the Latitude 0° Hotel in Kampala.
Moses Mauku, Acting General Secretary of HTS-Union stated, “At HTS-Union we consider these achievements extremely important, particularly given the current context. These steps forward are the result of continuous engagement with workers in the form of training and with management in the form of negotiation. The tripartite workshops we conducted as part of the ongoing IUF hotels project were also very useful.”
