Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Working Conditions (Hotels and Restaurants) Convention, 1991 (No. 172) - Austria (Ratification: 1994)

Article 4 of the Convention. Working conditions in the hotel and catering sector. The Committee notes the comments of the Federal Chamber of Labour according to which recent studies show that employment in the hotel and catering sector is marked by a high degree of instability, low employment duration, high risk of unemployment and a high level of stress due to difficult working conditions and atypical forms of working time (weekend work, night work, seasonal work). Based on the findings of three recent studies carried out by the Vienna Chamber of Labour, the Federal Chamber of Labour (BAK) maintains that working conditions in the hotel and catering sector have worsened in recent years and points at the increasing number of recorded accidents and the larger number of disability pensions awarded on account of mental illness. Furthermore, the Federal Chamber of Labour draws attention to the feminization trend in the sector (approximately two-thirds of the persons employed in the sector are women) and also the increasing proportion of migrants, now amounting to almost one third of all employees in the hotel and catering trade. In this latter connection, the Committee notes that according to a study conducted by the SORA Institute for Social Research and Analysis in 2003, one out of four immigrants working in the hotel and restaurant sector complained about being discriminated against in areas such as pay, workload, appreciation of job performance, and assignment of unpleasant tasks. The Committee requests the Government to submit any views it may wish to express in response to the observations of the Federal Chamber of Labour.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.