Contingent and Retentitive Employment in the Australian Hotel Industry

Abstract

This article examines hotel labour practices and provides a theoretical framework that accounts for changes in the pattern of hotel labour utilisation. The study found that hotels have reshaped core-periphery labour markets on a 'just in time basis'. In the hotel context, decisions concerning the allocation of tasks and labour are made at departmental level through a process of departmentalisation. Departmentalisation engenders procedural flexibility in restructuring the effort. timing and supply of labour. Hotel labour is structured according to retentive and contingent job tenure resulting in the collapse of the core-periphery divide. The research suggests a number of outcomes including creating a flexible supply of labour, perpetuating weak intemal labour markets and placing cost minimisation at the core of hotel labour utilisation strategy.