Travel and tourism companies around the world should be paying living wages and ensuring the provision of health care to their workers, but too often they are not.
Payment of living wages is “rare” according to Rochelle Turner, Intrepid Travel global B Corp impact manager and a contributor to a report published this week on social sustainability, labour and human rights in travel entitled ‘Why the S in ESG Matters’.
A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Turner said: “We know living wages are rare in the travel industry. That is in the report. There are lots of people without contracts.”
She explained Intrepid Travel’s B Corp status – which verifies a business meets high social and environmental standards – means “we’re a company that has a purpose and the purpose to help business be better”.
Turner noted: “Living wages are a social indicator and, to be a business that cares about its people, you have to pay people fairly.
“Intrepid operates in 32 countries and has 3,000 staff around the world. So, we did an assessment last year and identified that out of those 3,000, 10 were not paid the living wage at the time. That has been rectified.”
She added: “Health care is a fundamental right regardless of where you work – if you’re sick and can’t do your job or you have an accident and can’t afford your hospital bills.
“You want people to treat your guests with respect, to show them that they enjoy their job. What better way to ensure that than if they’re being paid fairly and know that if something were to happen, they would have a safety net?”
Turner argued: “Those are just a couple of ways we believe measuring the S in ESG is important. It’s fundamental to how good businesses should operate.
“It’s up to a company to work out what is important, and that might be living wages, it might be health care.”
But she said: “A lot of this is not being done. In parts of the world, when building tourism resorts or events facilities, people have their passports taken away and are ‘bonded’.”
Bonded labour is also known as debt slavery.
Turner said: “In certain parts of the world, tourists are encouraged to give money to little children. Why aren’t they in school? Why is this stuff being allowed? So, there is lots that needs to be done.”
The report on labour and human rights in travel and tourism, ‘Why the S in ESG matters’, is based on research by Dr Anke Winchenbach of the University of Surrey and was commissioned by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) and the IUF union representing food, agriculture, hotel, restaurant, catering and allied workers internationally.
It concludes poor labour conditions are impeding sustainability efforts in the industry, damaging recruitment and heightening risks for businesses, based on interviews with industry representatives, trade unions, investors and consultants.
The report includes assessments of existing social sustainability frameworks and case studies as well as recommended actions. It can be downloaded here