Williamson, DavidHarris, Candice2025-05-152025-05-152024-07-22Labour History, ISSN: 0023-6942 (Print); 1839-3039 (Online), Liverpool University Press, 1-20. doi: 10.3828/labourhistory.2024.290023-69421839-3039http://hdl.handle.net/10292/19201This 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.© 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.1503 Business and Management2103 Historical Studies2202 History and Philosophy of Specific FieldsHistory3505 Human resources and industrial relations4303 Historical studiesJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.3828/labourhistory.2024.29