Great tips for a socially responsible holiday
No matter where you are planning to go on holiday, your choices as a customer and tourist are very important. Choose a hotel or restaurant with collective agreement!
Colourbox
By Jakob Esmann
During the last decades, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a focus for quite many companies within the tourism industry. Unfortunately, many companies haven’t always included decent wages and fair working conditions in to their CSR policies.
Therefore, Nordic and European trade unions have tried to put fair wages and working condition on the agenda. Corporate social responsibility is not only about business ethics, environmental protection or equal opportunities, it is also about how the employees are treated! This means that workers in the tourism industry should be able to exercise their rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and should be in stable employment with decent conditions and wages.
According to The World Tourism Organization, UNWTO, the idea of fair, sustainable and responsible tourism has gained in popularity around the world. Fair trade tourism is a growing phenomenon, where the focus is on responsible and fair conditions for workers, culture, and nature.
Choose hotels and restaurants with collective agreement
So, why not use your choice as a costumer to support socially responsible hotels and restaurants? Evidence shows that hotels and restaurants with collective agreements ensure a greater job security, better wages, benefits and working conditions, than those who don’t have collective agreements.
In many countries, consumers have an option to avoid placing their money in irresponsible companies. For examples three of our member organizations (HRF, 3F and Fellesforbunded) have webpages and apps to help you as a consumer to make responsible choice.
Here you can find responsible hotels and restaurants
NU HRCT objective is to promote quality employment in hotel and restaurant industry and we have therefore drawn up the following list of websites where you can find hotels and restaurants with decent wages and fair working conditions in different countries around the globe.
Nordic Countries:
Denmark: www.okforhold.dk/ (hotels and restaurants)
Norway: www.fellesforbundet.no/hotell (hotels)
Sweden: www.schystavillkor.se/ (restaurants, hotels etc.)
Please note: In Finland and Iceland all hotels and restaurants in the tourism industry should be covered by collective agreements.
Other countries:
USA: www.fairhotel.org/ (hotels)
Croatia: www.fairhotels.com/hr/en/index.html (hotels)
Ireland: www.fairhotels.ie/ (hotels)