Hotel housekeepers and their unions used the IUF Global Week of Action (GWA) for Hotel Housekeepers to demand improvements to working conditions, particularly given the tourism sector’s overall strong recovery post-COVID-19.
Demands focused on:
- Governments and employers must ensure safe and healthy workplaces, including ending sexual harassment and all forms of violence at work
- Measures to ensure better wages and to close the gender pay gap, given the low wages and poor working conditions endemic to the sector
- Guaranteed, automatic daily room cleaning and measures negotiated with unions to implement real sustainability practices
- The GWA is held yearly to highlight the low pay, poor health and safety, and sexual harassment that continue to define the sector; daily housekeeping is increasingly discouraged under the pretext of guest privacy and outsourcing is growing under the pretext of addressing labour shortages caused by the pandemic.
IUF General Secretary Sue Longley stated, “Hotel housekeepers and their unions are very clear. They need: better wages, safer workplaces including an end to gender-based violence and harassment in the world of work, and an end to “greenwashing” practices that create cost-savings for employers while not protecting the planet. The time is now!”
Click here to see photos, social media messages and other materials from the Global Week of Action for Hotel Housekeepers!
