Europe’s hotel, restaurant and catering sector features 1.8 million companies employing almost 10 million workers. Tourism is one of the few sectors of the European economy with a high potential for growth and job creation, particularly providing an entry into the labour market for young people. Given the high percentage of atypical employment in the tourism sector, the EFFAT mission is to promote decent and fair working conditions. EFFAT activities in the tourism sector include promoting improvement and recognition of qualifications and skills, socially responsible and sustainable tourism, and strengthening social dialogue in the sector to improve working conditions.
Political Secretary: Kerstin Howald – k.howald@effat.org
President: José García Relucio, (FeSMC-UGT, Spain)
Vice-presidents: Andreas Gollner (Vida, Austria) & Dave Turnball (Unite the Union, UK)
On International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and ahead of Global Week of Action for Hotel Housekeepers, EFFAT joins the IUF urging FIFA to protect hospitality workers, mostly women, in host hotels during the World Cup 2022. In a country well...
For a level playing field and fair competition in hospitality and tourism 12 October 2022 | EFFAT and HOTREC, the European social partners for the hotel, restaurant, bar and café sector are welcoming the European Commission’s intention to present a legislative...
Tourism continues to show strong signs of recovery, international tourist arrivals are moving towards pre-pandemic levels, with arrivals in Europe reaching 74% of 2021 numbers in the first months of 2022. However, emerging from the pandemic shutdowns, the tourism...
After COVID-19, employment in travel and tourism in Europe is estimated to have dropped by 9.3%, equating to 3.6 million jobs. Tourism staff shortages in Europe impact all countries in Europe with varying intensity. Some numbers: In Germany, almost every fourth job in...
16 March 2022 | HOTREC and EFFAT, the European social partners in the hospitality sector, condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and deplore the loss of lives and the human suffering. The attack is a flagrant violation of international laws and agreements, and of...
8 February 2022 - EFFAT, the voice of 10 million tourism workers in Europe, welcomes the European Commission’s Tourism Transition Pathway (TTP) published on 4 February 2022 and presented today at the EU Industry Days 2022, and shares its vision to relaunch a...
Joint press release – ETF, ETUC, EFFAT, UNI Europa, IndustriAll Europe and ECA Brussels, 7 January 2022 The ETF, ETUC, EFFAT, UNI Europa, IndustriAll Europe and ECA welcome the Toulouse Declaration on future sustainability and decarbonisation in aviation, which was...
EFFAT joins this week’s Global Week of Action for Hotel Workers on 25-31 October 2021 under the slogan: Come Back Stronger/Regresar Más Fuertes With COVID-19 still raging, trade unions around the world are coming together this week to raise awareness of how hotel...
11 associations and trade unions representing the European hospitality industry and its value chain warmly welcome this week’s discussions at EU level on the survival of the sector. COVID-19 severely impacted the hospitality industry and its value chain, with...
The two-year European project “Workers’ influence on outsourcing, tender processes and transfer of employment contracts: watch the gap!” was carried out in partnership with EFFAT, ETF, EPSU, UNI Europa and Syndex. Its purpose was to analyse the implementation of EU...
