So How Did We Get Here? A Historical Case Study of Migrant Employment in the New Zealand Hotel Sector
Date
Authors
Williamson, David
Harris, Candice
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Liverpool University Press
Abstract
This article maps the transition from a corporatist to a neoliberal consensus in the hotel industry in New Zealand, focussing on the changing labour conditions for migrant workers. We show how the current vulnerabilities for migrant workers, such as poor pay and conditions, and low unionisation, came into being. While much “presentist” research takes migrant worker vulnerability in hospitality and tourism for granted, this article finds that migrant workers did not always experience such vulnerability but, rather, this was constructed over time. The impacts of employment legislation and ownership changes during the 1980s and 1990s were crucial. By taking a critical historical employment relations approach, we better contextualise the current moment of labour shortages, reliance on migrant labour and by “race to the bottom” employment conditions. This suggests that the drive for sustainable employment practices will remain “aspirational” until the power imbalance in New Zealand employment relations is addressed.Description
Keywords
1503 Business and Management, 2103 Historical Studies, 2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields, History, 3505 Human resources and industrial relations, 4303 Historical studies
Source
Labour History, ISSN: 0023-6942 (Print); 1839-3039 (Online), Liverpool University Press, 1-20. doi: 10.3828/labourhistory.2024.29
Publisher's version
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© 2024 Liverpool University Press. The Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM) version is the last author version of an article which was submitted to the journal editor for publication, likely a Word document or equivalent. This is the version which may be deposited under the conditions above, not the final publisher version which is a PDF with copyediting and typesetting performed on the work.