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/ Newly elected Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee will concentrate mainly on shortage of skills

Thursday, 18 October 2018
press-releases social_affairs
Krakow, 18 October 2018 – On the occasion of its 77th General Assembly, HOTREC, the umbrella association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafés in Europe, elected the members of its Sector Social Dialogue Committee (SSD) for a mandate of two years, starting 1 January 2019, and put forward its main priorities. Jean-Marc Banquet d’ Orx was re-elected as Chair of the SSD Committee. He is a member of the SSD since 2009. Mr. Banquet d’ Orx is the founder and chairman of the LONGITUDE HOTELS Group and holds the position of General Treasurer of UMIH National since 2008. Santa Graikste (Latvia);  Emilie Struck Westersø (Denmark); Dave Dankaerts (Belgium); Angelo Giuseppe Candido (Italy); Paul Schoormans (Netherlands) are the other elected SSD members. HOTREC, together with EFFAT, its trade-union counterpart, aim at prioritizing actions during 2018-2020 on the so-called “sharing” economy in order to help establishing a level playing field and fair competition in hospitality and tourism. The development of an online risk assessment tool, which will help companies across Europe to be compliant with all health and safety European legislation is another key goal of the social partners.  Above all, in a context where youth unemployment may reach 20% and more in some Member States, the fight against the shortage of skills will top the SSD agenda with a view to match the tens of thousands of jobs which remain unfulfilled every year. At the same time, job creation and the development of education and training schemes are also a top priority in their work-programme. Additionally, the improvement of the quality and the attractiveness of apprenticeship schemes through best practices sharing will also be one of the goals to achieve. “The hospitality sector employs 11 million people. It is, therefore, essential that a solid dialogue amongst social partners on European initiatives keeps developing in order for the sector to continue creating more jobs and increase its competitiveness”, commented Jean Marc Banquet D’Orx, Chair of the HOTREC SSD. For further information: www.hotrec.eu PRESS CONTACT: Marta Machado +32(0) 25136323, [email protected] HOTREC represents the hotel, restaurant and café industry at European level. The sector counts in total around 1.9 million businesses, being 99,5% small and medium sized enterprises (90% are micro enterprises, i.e. employing less than 10 people). These businesses make up some 60% of value added. The industry provides some 11.1 million jobs in the EU alone. Together with the other tourism industries, the sector is the 3rd largest industry in Europe. HOTREC brings together 43 national associations representing the interest of this industry in 30 different European countries.