The IUF-affiliated Pakistan Hotel, Restaurants, Club, Tourism, Catering and Allied Workers’ Federation [PHRCTCAWF] with the support of IUF Asia/Pacific launched the initiative to organize workers in small hotels, restaurants, and bakeries in Pakistan who are largely unorganized.
The organizing initiative is part of the 14th IUF Asia/Pacific Regional Conference Decisions to build collective bargaining power to ensure secure jobs, safe work, and better wages throughout the hotel & tourism [H&T] sector, including small and medium hotels and tourism operations.
The organizing started in Swat Valley in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, one of the major tourist destinations in Pakistan. The region has a large number of small hotels employing a substantial workforce in hotels and in tourism. However, the workers are not recognized as workers, not registered with any government agency and as such have no legal protections.
In 2023, the Serena Hotel Employees Union in Swat Valley, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, created the Small Hotels Workers Action Committee to mobilize workers in several small hotels to campaign for the implementation of the legal minimum wage and mandatory social insurance.
Small hotels generally employ 15 to 20 workers in precarious employment arrangements, with high workloads and often unsafe working conditions. Workers are required to work for 12 to 14 hours in poverty wages.
After the successful organizing of the Action Committee, in February 2024, the Small Hotels Workers Association was formed and applied for affiliation to PHRCTCAWF.
Small hotels Workers attending an educational meeting to discuss the impact of the climate crisis on tourism and their employment.
As a result, workers in Peshawar, in the same Province, approached the Small Hotels Workers Association and started organizing small hotels and bakery workers in Peshawar.