Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport & Media has published it Report on Working Conditions and Skills Shortages in Ireland’s Tourism and Hospitality Sector

The Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport & Media has published its Report on Working Conditions and Skills Shortages in Ireland's Tourism and Hospitality Sector in which it makes a series of recommendations.

In light of significant research completed by State agencies, union groups, and academic figures, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that workers and businesses in the Tourism and Hospitality Sector face real obstacles to a decent working life and to full complements of staff. Workers report issues with wages, employment precarity, harmful workplace behaviours, and trade union access; employers face acute staff shortages and are in need of a vast range of skills that they cannot attract solely from the domestic population.

Speaking on the publication of the report, Deputy Niamh Smyth, Cathaoirleach of the Committee said "Ireland's tourism and hospitality sector is central to the vitality of the Irish economy. Hotels, restaurants, pubs, and other establishments are the cornerstone of the céad míle fáilte offered to our visitors. It is only logical, and it is only right, that State interventions are established to offer some remedy to the sector, and to place the tourism and hospitality on equal footing with any other area of the economy."

The Deputy said "The Committee calls for stronger and more explicit governance measures in respect of the hospitality sector, for the re-establishment of the Joint Labour Committee system, for the reinforcement of Workplace Relation Commission operations in the sector, and for greater protections to be afforded to workers in the sector. In order to address skills shortage issues, the Committee makes recommendations in relation to visa and work permit applications and the availability of directly relevant apprenticeships, traineeships, and third-level courses."

Deputy Smyth added "It is the Committee's hope that these recommendations will be implemented so that Ireland's tourism and hospitality sector can offer as much value to workers and employers as the sector offers to its citizens and to its guests. Every worker deserves fair compensation and decent conditions. Every employer deserves the necessary support and oversight to optimise its service, in addition to an adequately skilled workforce."

The following key recommendations were made by the Committee:

1. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to establishing an independent body with specific oversight of and responsibility for Ireland's hospitality sector, with functions analogous to those of Fáilte Ireland in respect of Ireland's tourism sector.

2. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to nominating a single Government Department to retain direct oversight of and responsibility for all aspects of Ireland's tourism and hospitality sector, to include working conditions and training and recruitment.

3. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with industry stakeholders and any other relevant actors or organisations to seek, as a matter of urgency, a workable solution to the legal issues that have shut down the Joint Labour Committees relating to tourism and hospitality, and to ensure that they can be re-established to provide a process for fixing statutory minimum rates of pay and conditions of employment for employees in these sectors, given the clear evidence presented to the Committee of widespread poor pay and working conditions in many parts of the tourism and hospitality sectors.

4. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to advocating for the expedition of work permit, visa, and Public Personal Service Number applications for tourism and hospitality workers, as associated processing delays directly impact the sustainability of the sector. The Committee also recommends that any changes to visa processing must include a provision that migrants must be fully informed, supported and supplied with all relevant documents pertaining to their employment including their contract and conditions and pay before their visas are granted.

5. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to advocating for an increased resourcing of the Workplace Relations Commission to increase the number and prioritisation of Workplace Relations Commission inspections of all tourism and hospitality businesses, with increased inspectorate staffing and an enhanced complaints mechanism for workers in the sector, whereby workers' anonymity can be respected.

6. The Committee recommends that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media commission further research to meet the need for detailed research and empirical evidence on working conditions, and on the implementation of employment legislation, in Ireland's tourism and hospitality sector, with a particular focus on how women, minoritised groups, and migrant workers are affected.

7. The Committee recommends that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, in engaging in any interdepartmental group or forum concerning Ireland's tourism and hospitality sector, advocate for and/or ensure insofar as is possible that the interests of trade union groups and workers are equally represented alongside those of employers and their representative groups.

8. The Committee recommends that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with the Tourism Careers Oversight Group with a view to nominating a body accountable for the delivery of any recommendations made by the Group.

9. The Committee recommends that the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science on the delivery of further apprenticeship, traineeship, and third-level diploma and degree programmes that are geographically accessible to as wide a range as possible of prospective apprentices, trainees, or students, and that are directly relevant to the tourism and hospitality sector.

10. The Committee recommends that Fáilte Ireland further enhance its employer development and Excellent Employer programmes to encourage employers to grant uninhibited access to trade unions, and that Fáilte Ireland coordinate a publicity campaign to highlight such initiatives.

11. The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media work with the industry and workers' unions to produce a national standardised code of conduct that is mandatory and legally binding for the hospitality sector, including protections for women, migrants, and minority groups.