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Hotel Workers in Australia Dish On 'Ethical Hotels'

It's old news that some hotel guests want to choose their hotel by looking at how green they are, but in Australia a consumer website has just started up so we can also know how ethical a hotel is – and the people behind the First Star: Ethical Luxury website are not too shy to name and shame.

The website was launched last week by the trade union which represents hotel workers in Australia, and, in their words:

The aim is for the site to be used as a tool for travellers and workers to push for social change.

So far they're light on the "this hotel isn't green" message and heavy on the "this hotel exploits their workers" theme. Luxury hotels in major Australian cities, such as Sydney's Sofitel Wentworth and the Novotel Darling Harbour, get slammed for stuff like cutting out workers' breaks or not paying overtime due (although the latter at least gets some kudos for doing some nice environmentally-friendly stuff).

Whether or not we'll actually bother checking this website before making our accommodation decision in Australia is a good question, but of course we quite like reading tidbits about who's doing what wrong, so we might at least take another visit.