“Make Up My Workplace!” A trade union perspective on a living wage in the tourism industry in Asia

Excerpted from a presentation by IUF Asia/Pacific Regional Secretary to “One way ticket out of poverty?” A seminar on sustainable tourism, community development and living wages in the global tourism sector, Stockholm, 25 September 2014

Working in the hotel industry  can be a good, decent job,  and for some it is. But the ‘some’ are either in managerial or supervisory positions, are temporarily benefitting from high wages due to a labour shortage or tourism boom, or are members of a genuine trade union that ensures decent working conditions and a living wage through collective bargaining.

For the vast majority of tourism workers this is not the case. Across the spectrum from locally-owned budget hotels to five star luxury resorts operated by international hotels and their supply chains we find poor working conditions and rampant human rights abuses. These abuses include forced and trafficked labour, child labour, discrimination, hazardous and dangerous work, denial of the right to organize and of course poverty wages.

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