Sebagai bagian dari program pendidikan dan peningkatan kesadaran tentang otomatisasi dan teknologi baru, IUF Asia/Pasifik meluncurkan satu set empat infografis yang menjelaskan:
Pada peringatan 76 tahun Deklarasi Universal Hak Asasi Manusia pada 10 Desember 2024, Federasi Serikat Pekerja Hotel, Restoran, Plaza, Apartemen, Katering, dan Pariwisata (FSPM) yang berafiliasi dengan IUF menggelar aksi unjuk rasa di Kementerian Ketenagakerjaan untuk menuntut segera diratifikasinya Konvensi ILO No. 190 di Indonesia. Sejak November lalu, FSPM bersama 20 serikat pekerja dan organisasi perempuan lainnya mengintensifkan kampanye mereka, setelah berbulan-bulan melakukan kajian sejak konvensi tersebut diadopsi, untuk mendesak pemerintah melaksanakan tanggung jawab mereka dalam melindungi hak pekerja atas tempat kerja yang aman dan bebas dari segala bentuk kekerasan dan pelecehan.
Sebuah poster yang berbunyi “Katakan TIDAK pada kekerasan di tempat kerja”
Di bawah aliansi bernama Jaringan Advokasi Konvensi ILO 190 (JAK KILO 190), organisasi-organisasi tersebut memanfaatkan media sosial untuk mempromosikan dan meningkatkan kesadaran masyarakat tentang pentingnya konvensi tersebut. Aksi nasional pada 10 Desember digunakan sebagai momentum untuk menyampaikan tuntutan mereka agar pemerintah serius membuat regulasi yang komprehensif, inklusif, dan menjamin perlindungan bagi semua pekerja.
Sehari sebelum aksi unjuk rasa, tepatnya pada tanggal 9 Desember, aliansi menggelar siaran pers untuk mengumumkan pernyataan sikap mereka. Mereka menyoroti minimnya tindakan yang dilakukan pemerintah pada langkah awal untuk meratifikasi konvensi tersebut, padahal pelecehan dan kekerasan di dunia kerja masih terus terjadi di Indonesia. Aliansi juga menyebutkan beberapa contoh pelecehan dan kekerasan yang terjadi di berbagai sektor. Sebuah survei yang dilakukan oleh salah satu anggota aliansi menunjukkan bahwa setidaknya 1 dari 23 pekerja pernah mengalami kekerasan dan pelecehan seksual di tempat kerja.
Brother Galih Tri Panjalu, Sekertaris Umum FSPM, menekankan perlunya ratifikasi konvensi demi peningkatan harkat dan martabat manusia serta untuk membentuk aliansi yang lebih besar yang memiliki tujuan yang sama.
Keikutsertaan FSPM dalam mobilisasi dan kampanye ini merupakan bentuk komitmen mereka untuk mewujudkan tempat kerja yang layak dan aman bagi seluruh pekerja, khususnya pekerja perempuan agar terlindungi dari kekerasan dan diskriminasi berbasis gender yang dapat menghalangi mereka mewujudkan kesetaraan gender di tempat kerja.
Sister Esther Octavia Titaley, perwakilan Komite Perempuan FSPM, berorasi di aksi unjuk rasa
On the 76th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 2024, IUF affiliated-Federation of Hotel, Restaurant, Plaza, Apartment, Catering, and Tourism Workers’ Free Union (FSPM) joined a protest action at the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower to demand the urgent ratification of ILO Convention No. 190. Since this last November, the FSPM and other 20 trade unions and women organizations have been intensifying their campaign, after months of study since the convention adoption, to push the government to implement their responsibility in protecting workers’ rights to a safe workplace free from all form of violence and harassment.
A poster reads “Say NO to violence in the workplace”
Under an alliance named Jaringan Advokasi Konvensi ILO 190 (JAK KILO 190), those organizations make use of social media to promote and raise people awareness on the importance of the convention. The national action on December 10 was used as a momentum to convey their demand for government seriousness for comprehensive regulations that are inclusive that guarantee the protection for all workers.
A day before the protest action, on December 9, the alliance held a press release to announce their statement. They highlighted the lack of action done by the government on initial step to ratify the convention, even though harassment and violence in the world of work continue to occur in Indonesia. The alliance also mentioned several examples of harassment and violence happened in various sectors. A survey conducted by one of the alliance members showed that at least 1 of 23 workers have experienced a sexual violence and harassment at work.
Brother Galih Tri Panjalu, General Secretary of FSPM, emphasized the need of the convention ratification for the promotion of human dignity and to form a bigger alliance that have the same goal.
FSPM participation in the mobilization and campaign reflects their commitment to realize a decent and safer workplace for all workers, especially for women workers to be protected against gender-based violence and discrimination that can stop them exercising gender equality at work.
Sister Esther Octavia Titaley, representive of FSPM Women’s Committee, gave a speech on the protest action
On July 1, 2024, the Accor-branded Sofitel Philippines Plaza Hotel will close for renovation. Although it will eventually reopen, the owning companies behind Philippine Plaza Holdings, Inc (PPHI) – which is owned by a joint venture between Kajima Group’s subsidiary Kajima Development and Allied Properties in Hong Kong – have decided to declare a complete closure with mass layoffs. In complete disregard for international human rights standards and its obligations under the OECD Guidelines, Accor has simply gone along with this.
When the Philippine Plaza Chapter (PPC) and the Philippine Plaza Supervisory Chapter (PPSC) of NUWHRAIN requested negotiations on the terms and conditions of the renovation, Accor and Kajima Allied’s Philippine Plaza Holdings, Inc (PPHI) simply refused. They would not even provide an explanation of why the hotel will close when much of the renovation has already been completed. Even while Accor and hotel management told the unions – then openly declared in the media – “the hotel is unsafe!” … events, parties, conferences and bookings continued.
Kajima Development and Allied Properties maintain a lease on the beachfront and land through Philippine Plaza Holdings, Inc (PPHI) that will expire in another 17 years. Instead of seeking to terminate the lease because of the “closure” of the luxury hotel resort, they are seeking an extension to a 25-year lease. So Accor and the owners of the iconic Sofitel Philippines Plaza Hotel have plans. The workers who dedicated dozens of years – and for some decades – of their working lives to make Sofitel Philippines Plaza Hotel so successful have no part in this plan. They will be thrown out like trash on July 1, 2024.
This is actually the purpose of this declared “renovation”. Get rid of hundreds of workers and all of their pensions and benefits. Dismantle the unions and the collective bargaining agreements that recognize workers’ contribution to the business through decent wages and benefits, and reset the business. So when the hotel reopens it will be free to hire an entirely new workforce with zero years of service, and will not need to negotiate with any union that is intent on protecting workers’ rights and bargaining fair wages. The zero reset in this renovation will mean zero rights for the workers that walk through the back door in the renovated, reopened hotel resort.
Opened on September 26, 1976, the hotel went through three major renovations (1994, 1995, 2007) and every few years there were a series of extensive resonations and upgrading. Accor took over the hotel operations under its luxury Sofitel brand in 2007 with a major renovation. 17 years later the hotel will go through another renovation because – the owning company and Accor claim – it is “unsafe”. Accor has confused approach to safety, with its “Allsafe” label coinciding with rights abuses and unsafe working conditions in countries such as Indonesia.
Workers now see the dark side the catchphrase of Accor’s luxury Sofitel Philippine Plaza resort: “WHERE LIFE LIVES!” And they are left to ask, “For who?” It lives for guests, for profits, for business. But workers will not be able to live their lives. They face hardship, anxiety and bitterness.
What Accor refuses to recognize is the promising potential of workers already working in their hotels in the Philippines, and the hopeless they have created for hundreds of workers and their families. July 1, 2024, will be a dark day for these families and will cast a shadow on Accor’s upcoming hotel properties in the Philippines for decades to come.
Hotels are as much as about the service that workers provide as the location and facilities. Rooms and facilities are cleaned and maintained, food is prepared, cooked and served. Guests are attended to, entertained, assisted, and kept safe. From the laundry to food and beverage, to cafes, restaurants, conference rooms and banquet halls, there is cleaning, maintenance, preparation, security and constant service.
Yet for most international hotel chains, workers are invisible, an afterthought, or just an expense. Based on the attitude of an entire generation of HR managers who lack any understanding of industrial relations and work, workers are just a problem to be solved.
Without workers nothing works. Nothing happens. No one eats. Nothing gets cleaned. Without the service, security and welcome atmosphere that guests pay for, the hotel is just a building. In fact it is the service provided by hotel workers that makes the people that come to hotels guests. Ignoring this reality, international hotel chains spend hundreds of millions of dollars on loyalty programs, brand promotion, and image. This entire business model fails to take into account that loyalty is based on a good experiences and that experiences depend on hotel workers.
The hundreds of millions of dollars wasted on loyalty programs and brand promotion should be redirected to paying workers decent wages; improving working conditions; guaranteeing safe, secure (permanent) jobs; protecting hotel workers from harassment and abuse; reducing excessive workloads and reducing workplace stress; and ensuring that workers can freely access their rights, including the right to join a union and the right to a safe workplace. These are human rights.
Similarly, all of the financial resources redirected to brand image is ultimately wasted if global hotel chains allow local management to treat workers unfairly; engage in discrimination; impose excessive workloads; bully, intimidate and harass; and blame workers’ “attitude” on anything and everything that goes wrong. This happens because there is no recognition of the value of the work of hotel workers in all their different job roles and occupations. There is no recognition of hotel workers’ valuable contribution to the hotelas a business and its brand. Since their value is not recognized, workers are not respected. When managers and supervisors do not respect workers it opens the door to all sorts of abuse and unfair treatment.
The failure of corporate management to stop this abuse and unfair treatment gives these abusive managers and supervisors a sense of impunity. Managers are emboldened by this sense of impunity, and it just gets worse for workers.
The tragic result is that the people expected to provide warm, friendly, prompt, efficient, professional service and/or to work hard, meet targets and follow (constantly changing schedules), simply cannot. When some workers give up and leave, management blames workers’ lack of loyalty or the problem of retention (“they keep changing jobs”). The hotel industry then goes running to government and the media complaining about a “labour shortage”. What they don’t explain is that there is only a shortage of workers willing to work under these abusive conditions– underpaid, overworked, and denied dignity and respect. Well, yes – there is a shortage of that kind of labour because most workers are aware of their human rights and won’t tolerate these abusive conditions.
The solution for these global hotel chains, it seems, is to bring in workers who are not aware of their rights or who are too vulnerable and afraid to exercise their rights: migrant workers on temporary visas, newly arrived immigrant workers or refugees, undocumented workers, or students. (Exploiting students under the guise of “on the job training” is rampant in the international hotel chains in many countries.)
The entire management approach of international hotel chains seems to hinge on the hope that hotel guests don’t see workers as people (and for certain workers like housekeepers, cleaners and kitchen hands to never see them at all). Yet everyone has a name tag with their first name (or if their real name is a difficult “ethnic” name, then they will be Peter, Mike or Jenny). Hotel workers who have contact with guests have to introduce themselves by name. All very personal, all very human. But what workers cannot be is an actual person with a family to get back to, bills to pay, family events to attend, or anything else that might suggest that beyond the name tag is a real person with a life of their own.)
Hotel workers are expected to bring the warmth and friendliness and smile of a person, but not expected to be treated as a person. Hotel workers are expected to be professional, but are not treated as professionals with ability, skills and experience. They certainly are not paid according to their skills, ability and experience. Hotel workers are not paid for their valuable contribution and the important work they do. Because the value of their work and contribution is not recognized.
Ultimately this recognition can only come through joining or forming a union, combining together to exercise the collective bargaining power needed to stop the unfair treatment and abusive practices in hotels. It is the collective bargaining power needed to ensure safe, secure jobs free from anxiety and stress. It is the collective representation through the union needed to end the impunity of abusive managers and supervisors, and to eliminate discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace. It is the only way to work with dignity and respect. It is the only way to ensure recognition of the value of the work of all workers in a hotel or resort.
Joining or forming a union is not a magic solution for hotel workers. It requires continuous organizing and constant bargaining. It involves a never ending fight to be treated decently, and paid fairly. It involves constant reminders to management to treat workers (union members) with respect. But it is the only way to bring about these changes. Because the only thing that matters to the international hotel chains is the value of their very expensive, very fragile brands. We need to get organized to remind them that behind that brand is hotel workers, and hotel workers have value.
Hotel housekeeping workers in the Philippines protest “room quotas kill!” on International Workers Memorial Day, 28 April
