Meliá Hotels International and the major Spanish trade unions UGT and CCOO signed the new company Equality Plan for Spain. Designed to update and improve on the first plan announced in 2011, the new plan includes commitments assumed by the company with regard to workers’ defence organisations and equality between women and men.
The new plan defines measures to promote equality in nine different areas: access to the company, recruitment, promotion, training, pay, occupational health, gender-based violence, communication, and work-life balance.
The most significant innovations include a commitment to balance in the recruitment of both sexes within the percentages defined for the compulsory recruitment of people with disabilities and to carry out training in equality at all levels of the organisation. The company also agreed to publish the criteria for determining salaries and to introduce psychosocial evaluations by gender and the consideration of gender variables in Occupational Risk Prevention.
Meliá was a pioneer in reaching an agreement with the IUF (international tourism industry trade union) to fight harassment, and has also introduced improvements in its second Equality Plan regarding the victims of gender-based violence (in matters such as time off work and help in moving house, justification of absences and refuge in hotels, etc).
In terms of work-life balance, access to training and promotion will be improved and facilities for people with children or other dependents will be extended, introducing greater flexibility so they can accompany children to school tutorials, visits to the doctor or hospital, etc., as well as greater flexibility in adjusting shifts and the possibility of reaching a mutual agreement with the company to change their working hours during the first year after the birth of a child without the need to reduce the number of hours.
Finally, Meliá is also committed to enhancing communication with regard to diversity and equality, and more specifically to create an “Equality” section on its new Employee Portal.
With more than 45,000 employees with more than 130 nationalities in 45 countries, Meliá Hotels International works on a global level to enhance diversity and equality at every level in the organisation, and especially in Spain where we it has been working with the biggest trade unions for more than 10 years to remain at the forefront of the industry in these matters. The company is also representing the tourism industry in the “ClosinGap” project involving 11 of the biggest Spanish companies which aims to analyse and help reduce gender gaps in different areas of society and in the Spanish economy in general.
