The First Star – Ethical Luxury

Phil Freeman speaks at the launch of The First Star

“ACF welcomes the launch of LHMU’s new campaign The First Star. It’s about leadership, collaboration and a ‘can-do’ attitude – all essential factors in solving the climate crisis” said Phil Freeman, Climate Campaigner at the ACF.

“We know that luxury hotels have the potential to make big improvements in their environmental footprint – with better outcomes for both the planet and workers.

“It’s also clear that our natural icons like the Great Barrier Reef, and tens of thousands of tourism jobs that depend on them are at risk – if we let the climate crisis spiral out of control.

“We see practical and outcomes-oriented campaigns like The First Star as the natural next step in our successful alliance with the ACTU – the Southern Cross Climate Coalition.

“We know that Australian workers and their unions want to be part of the solution to the climate crisis. We look forward to seeing The First Star hit the ground, and helping to make it a success,” says Phil Freeman.

Phil Freeman (Climate Campaigner, ACF), Louise Tarrant (LHMU National Secretary), Ana Zubieta (Sydney Hotel Worker) and Andrew Reynolds (Adelaide Hotel Worker) at the launch of The First Star

An initiative of LHMU – the hospitality union – The First Star rating recognises hotels that treat their workers fairly and minimise their impact on our environment.

“The First Star is a positive program to encourage luxury hotels to negotiate fair agreements with their workers and take steps to address their environmental impact,” says Louise Tarrant, LHMU National Secretary.

“Travellers are accustomed to the star-based ratings system for hotels. The First Star builds on that by rating hotels according to how ethically they engage with these fundamental issues.

“Initially The First Star is focussing on developing a sustainability and fair work agenda. This will be done by compiling customer and supporter experiences integrating and sharing the views of workers, engaging with credible environment non-government organisations and consulting with industry leaders.

“We shall then report online all hotels that commit to clear and transparent processes and we shall encourage supporters to use preferred hotels.

“There’s certainly plenty of scope for improvement in Australia’s hotel industry. The workers have very serious workplace issues including low pay, high casualisation and high injury rates. As for the environment, hotels are susceptible to both the long term and short term impacts of climate change.

“The First Star website will allow hotel workers to engage with customers and the public for the first time.

“This is an innovative and constructive initiative by our union. Instead of boycotting bad employers this ratings system encourages hotels to do the right thing by workers and by the environment.

“We urge travellers and organisations to get behind The First Star,” says Louise Tarrant.

Download The First Star fact sheet.

The First Star is all about trying to introduce good ethical practice into the luxury hotel industry. We believe a luxurious hotel stay shouldn’t come at the cost of hotel workers, the environment, or basic human rights principles. And we think people who stay at these hotels agree with us.

The first step in creating an ethical luxury experience is to find out what is really going on downstairs in the kitchens, laundries, luggage rooms, energy systems and supply chains of five and four and half star hotels. And we make this promise to the community of travellers, workers, investors and host communities; if we know, we will let you know. That way all of us can decide if the hotel we stay with, work for, invest in or are neighbours of, are worth the cost.

Over the past few weeks workers have been letting The First Star know what is going in their hotels. A lot of this information is very specific, so in order to protect the identity of workers we may at times talk about breaches of occupational health and safety or – if it’s an incident of bullying or disrespectful treatment, we may call it a breach of respect. We will only do this if publishing the detail of the problem would reveal the identity of the person involved.

But as far as is possible, we will make this a transparent and live appraisal of where the luxury hotel industry is at in terms of their treatment of staff, the environment and basic human rights principles. After all, if the unexamined life is not worth living, surely the unethical hotel is not worth staying in.