Accor Indigenous staff - EDITED

Accor Hotels today (Mar 20) joined Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion to launch the Employment Parity Initiative which invites corporate Australia to commit to three per cent Indigenous employees and increase the number of jobs for Indigenous job seekers by 2020.

“Accor is proud to join the Australian Government and commit to the Employment Parity Initiative and through this partnership, provide long-term sustainable outcomes for our Indigenous employment programs,” said Accor Pacific Chief Operating Officer, Simon McGrath.

“As an employer of over 10,000 hospitality staff nationally we are focused on supercharging Indigenous employment from 318 employees currently and generating 1,000 job opportunities by 2018 and we can only do this with significant Government support.

“We believe that Accor has the capacity to substantially influence the economic benefit to the nation if Indigenous Australians achieve employment parity and we salute the Australian Government for this initiative as it reflects the high priority they place on both Indigenous employment as well as the tourism sector,” McGrath said.

Accor’s Indigenous workforce currently sits around 3.8 per cent and Accor is focused on creating over 680 new career opportunities in addition to developing Indigenous role models in senior management positions.

Accor Hotels, which employs 10,000 staff nationally, is one of the first Australian businesses to join the Government initiative to provide Indigenous Australian’s with greater employment opportunities.

“We see within Accor that the best way to communicate Australia’s rich story as a nation is through our Indigenous voice,” McGrath said.

The initiative, launched at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, responds to the Recommendation 19 of the Forrest Review – Creating Parity.

James Wilkinson

Editor-In-Chief, Hotel Management