Background information

European social partners in the hotel, restaurant and café sector: HOTREC and the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions (EFFAT), call on the EU and Member States to continue their efforts to save the sector from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, thus:

• extension of EU and national funding for as long as necessary;
• implement measures to avoid high levels of corporate indebtedness;
• securing employees' income and preventing redundancies; and to support upskilling and re-skilling across the EU.

HOTREC is the umbrella Association of Hotels, Restaurants, Bars and Cafes and similar establishments in Europe, which brings together 44 National associations in 33 countries, and is the voice of the hospitality industry in Europe.

EFFAT represents 116 national trade unions from 37 European countries, and defends the interests of more than 25 million workers towards the European Institutions, European employers’ associations, and transnational companies.

Content of measure

Sectoral social partners indicated that they expect the following actions from the EU institutions and national governments.

• Extension of EU and national funding for as long as necessary and beyond December 2021 (e.g. state aid; cohesion funds; job retention programs): they consider recovery to be slow as the easing of travel restrictions across the EU and outside the Schengen area will take time;
• Avoiding over-indebtedness and loss of creditworthiness of valuable companies, namely: integrating solvency measures into national recovery and resilience plans; ensuring that equity and quasi-equity instruments are backed up by programs such as InvestEU and the new EIB Group Guarantee Fund; using the React-EU instrument to support corporate solvency; providing tax incentives for private investment; developing early warning mechanisms for companies threatened with insolvency;
• Supporting upskilling and re-skilling: social partners welcome the Commission Recommendation on active promotion of employment and apprenticeships in particular. In their opinion, Europe must invest in people to respond to the social and economic effects of the COVID-19 crisis and to prepare for and accompany the ecological and digital change. There is a need for a skilled and motivated workforce to help rebuild this sector.

Use of measure

n.a.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Sector specific set of companies	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Social partners jointly	European Funds National funds National Recovery and Resilience Facility

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative	Agreed (outcome) incl. social partner initiative
Form	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal	Any other form of consultation, institutionalised (as stable working groups or committees) or informal

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: EU level

Involvement

This is own initiative of sectoral social partners.

Views and reactions

Sectoral social partners have supportive view to their own initiative.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 04 March 2021: Rebuilding the Hospitality sector (effat.org)