Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
by several labour issues. Some of these issues include employment equity, pay
equity, equal pay for equal work, low wages, poor working conditions, inad-
equate or no severance and pension packages, underage employment and
gendered roles. One major reason which helps to explain why these labour
issues are common within the tourism sector is the absence of labour unions.
Many jobs in the tourism sector are seasonal and informal. This situation
makes it very difficult for workers to form labour unions to collectively
ensure safe and fair working conditions and terms.
The high prevalence of issues relating to employment equity, pay equity,
equal pay for equal work, poor working conditions, underage employment,
gendered roles, poor working conditions and low wages clearly violate the
human rights principles enshrined in Article 7 of the ICESCR (1966),
Articles 23 and 24 of the UNUDHR (1948), Article 1 of ILO Discrimination
(Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111), Articles 1 and 2
of ILO Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), and Articles 1 and
2 of ILO Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138). Similarly, issues relating
to inadequate or lack of severance and pension packages also violate Article
9 of ICESCR (1966).
Employment creation is one of the critical components of development;
hence, if tourism is to be used as a tool for development, governments,
workers and tourism developers need to work conscientiously to address
the common employment and labour issues affecting workers in the tour-
ism sector.
Displacement
In some instances, attempts by state officials to demarcate or designate
certain places as tourist sites, especially in developing nations, have led to
gross violation of indigenous peoples' rights. More often than not, indigenous
peoples' livelihoods depend on farming, fishing, hunting and rearing of ani-
mals in certain places. These spaces often get demarcated or designated for
tourism purposes and indigenous peoples are evicted to make way for the
development of tourist sites. Sometimes, these evictions come with little or
no compensation. Those who fail to comply with eviction orders may face
forcible evictions. Keefe and Wheat (1998) recount how pastoralists from the
Mkomazi Game Reserve in Tanzania were forcibly evicted by the govern-
ment in 1988 in an effort to develop the reserve for tourism. According to
these authors, the homes of the pastoralists were destroyed during the process
of the eviction while most of their livestock were seized and sold by the gov-
ernment to pay for the eviction costs. Elsewhere in Kenya, some coastal
people whose livelihoods depended on fishing were barred from fishing along
beaches privatised for tourism (Keefe & Wheat, 1998). Similarly, locals who
lived along coastal areas of the Caribbean were also not permitted to visit
beaches in their own localities because they were either privatised or
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