Development finance institutions claim two core missions: to promote development and to alleviate poverty. These institutions offer preferential loan terms to clients with the understanding that they will adhere to national law, international labor standards, and development bank-specific labor safeguards.
However, in hotels around the world that are financed by the private lending arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as bilateral, regional, and national development banks, workers consistently face poverty wages, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, discrimination, gender-based violence, and retaliation for union organizing.
For the past five years, the IUF and GLJ have collaborated on hotel development finance and worked with hotel workers to access their rights, including freedom of association, collective bargaining, occupational health and safety, and freedom from gender-based violence and harassment.
As part of our efforts to hold development finance accountable to workers’ rights, I’m proud to announce that Global Labor Justice, along with the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – have launched a new website, Accountable Development Finance: Hospitality.
This site is a major new resource for all those interested in sectoral approaches to holding development banks accountable. The centerpiece of the website is an interactive map that tracks all hospitality investments by all development finance institutions that have invested in the sector. The site also includes a proposed policy solution – the Early Engagement Labor Framework Agreement – which you can read about in detail on the site.
GLJ will continue to work with its partners to fight for workers’ rights in the hospitality sector and ensure that development banks fulfill their core mission and make development impact a reality for workers.