DFIs generally require that projects respect employees’ right to associate and bargain collectively and observe national labor and employment law.  For example, Performance Standard 2, adopting the language of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, provides:

In countries where national law recognizes workers’ rights to form and to join workers’ organizations of their choosing without interference and to bargain collectively, the client will comply with national law… [T]he client will not discourage workers from electing worker representatives, forming or joining workers’ organizations of their choosing, or from bargaining collectively, and will not discriminate or retaliate against workers who participate, or seek to participate, in such organizations and collective bargaining. The client will engage with such workers’ representatives and workers’ organizations and provide them with information needed for meaningful negotiation in a timely manner.  --- Performance Standard 2.

Still, the managers of several DFI-financed hotels have obstructed processes of union formation and collective negotiation, refusing to cooperate and bargain in good faith.  DFI-financed hotel managers have likewise collected union dues but refused to provide the funds to unions.

Case Study: Ciela Resort by Marriott, Lusaka, Zambia

At the IFC-financed Protea by Marriott Ciela in Lusaka, Zambia, management illegally used intimidation and retaliation to obstruct employees’ effort to organize.  They refused to negotiate a recognition agreement with the Hotel, Catering, Tourism, and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (HCTAWUZ) despite a legal obligation to do so, after 42 workers formally indicated their desire for HCTAWUZ representation in February 2021. Under Zambian law, HCTAWUZ should have been recognized after 25 workers signed consent forms, but it would not be until March 2022 that management finally complied. Its openly anti-union statements and discipline of union supporters failed to discourage the workforce, and by that time, 77 workers had joined the union.  DFI investments are intended to support economic growth and stability, which is inconsistent with protracted union recognition processes in violation of international and national law.

[Photo of Ciela Workers at Union Election]