Employment characteristics of a five-star hotel in south-east Queensland Australia

Hotels and resorts are an important sector of the tourism and hospitality industries in Australia. The sector is labour intensive which means that productivity and labour are intrinsically linked. Despite the importance of labour, studies seem to indicate a less than optimal use of labour. The sector experiences a high level of casual employment as well as high levels of labour turnover. The sector is also perceived generally as a low-skilled industry with associated low pay levels. Despite these generally accepted labour characteristics there is a great variety in workplace size and ownership as well as management structure in the sector which may result in differences in characteristics. This paper presents the results from a study that examines the labour characteristics in a five-star Hotel in South-east Queensland. The findings indicate that employment characteristics in the five-star case study Hotel are substantially different from those in hotels and resorts generally. There are lower levels of casualisation, although many of the experiences of casual employees are similar to those in other industries. There is also lower labour turnover, as well as better working conditions and higher levels of education than normally associated with hotels and resorts.