×
Home
2024 Conference
All Conferences
Instructions
TSVC | Tourism Students Virtual Conference

Vulnerability and exploitation of migrant workers in the United Kingdom tourism industry

Vulnerability and exploitation of migrant workers in the United Kingdom tourism industry
Author: Denis Gudkov
1 Commentries
Abstract

Migrant workers can be considered to be one of the most vulnerable groups in tourism employment. This paper will focus on assessing the vulnerability and exploitation of migrant workers within the tourism industry in the United Kingdom (UK).

Keywords: Migrant workers, Exploitation, Vulnerability, Tourism.

According to People 1st Research (2016), there are around 5 million non-British nationals working in the UK, which accounts for 16% of total employment. The percentage is even higher in the tourism and hospitality sector, 24% of overall employment. One of the reasons behind it is the nature and accessibility of the hospitality jobs as well the skills required to obtain the jobs (King, 1995). Due to the fact that the hospitality industry is continually growing, there is an issue to achieve an adequate workforce supply-demand balance (Go et al., 1996). In the UK, there have been many occasions where skill gaps and difficulties occurred. The British government introduced a potential way of reducing these problems by creating “managed immigration” (Home Office, UK Border Agency, 2006). Supported by the idea of managed immigration, 10 Eastern European states joined the EU in 2004, allowing an influx of new workforce.

One of the reasons why foreigners choose to work in the UK tourism sector is the fact that the wages in UK are higher compared to their home countries (Janta and Ladkin, 2009). Another motivation is their willingness to learn or improve their English language skills. On the other hand, employers are interested in the foreign workforce for multiple reasons. According to Lyon and Sulcova (2009), foreign-born employees are perceived as good workers because they are highly committed, obedient and reliable. They often have a positive attitude, are highly educated and with relevant skills. On the contrary, according to Lowings (2006), British school-leavers frequently lack basic skills. However, the respondents in the tourist areas across the UK stated that customers prefer to be served by the local people.

Employment in the tourism and hospitality sector can create a situation that exploits the migrant workers, because of the nature of tourism workplaces. Tourism workplaces usually feature high staff turnover, persistent labour, long and unsocial hours. Moreover, employment in the tourism industry can often be seasonal and flexible, due to the seasonality of tourism demand and high levels of part-time employees.

Forms of exploitation, such as underpayment, late payment and the deliberate withholding of pay can be seen as one of the common issues regarding migrant working in the UK hospitality industry. According to Lawrence (2005), there has been a widespread pattern associated with allegations against the labour agencies. Labour agencies were accused of abusing, underpaying foreign workers as well as fraud, avoiding taxes and crime and violence. It has been researched that labour agencies, in fact, are responsible for misleading recruitment of workers in their country of origin and false promises of a good salary, conditions and housing (Lawrence, 2005).

An addition, exploitation in the hospitality industry can relate to irregular contracts, flexible and zero-hour contracts (ZHC) as well as unguaranteed hours. Particularly, employees working under ZHC receive significantly lower wages, in comparison to those employed on full-time contracts. Similar types of flexible contracts have been used throughout the UK hospitality industry, in order to provide additional hours when required, but not issuing fixed costs and avoiding additional payment for overtime work (French, 2018).

Another aspect that migrants face in the UK hospitality industry is discrimination. Respondents from Janta et al. (2010) study revealed that on some occasions they have experienced unequal treatment, included being less rewarded compared to their British colleagues. Wright and Pollert (2006) noted similar themes related to discrimination, hate speech and racism by restaurant customers and staff.

One of the biggest factors that contribute to the exploitation of migrant workers is the lack of unionisation in the hospitality sector. Existence of labour agencies in a given sector has negatively affected the ability of unions to establish a presence in the given industry. This could be proved by the fact that in the hotel sector only 4% of workers are represented by the trade union (FLEX, 2017).

In order to tackle the exploitation of migrant workers, the government should use current legislation to define stricter measures and financial sanctions on business and organisations that exploit their workforce and break the law. Lastly, it can be suggested that organisations apply the SEE formula (scrutinise, engage and ensure) developed by Staff Wanted Initiative (2016 in order to tackle exploitation within their businesses.

References:

Lyon and Sulcova (2009) Hotel Employers' Perceptions of Employing Eastern European Workers: A Case study of Cheshire, UK. Tourism Culture & Communication. 9(1/2) 17-28.

Janta, H., Ladkin, A., Brown, L. and Lugosi, P. (2010) Employment experiences of Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality sector. Tourism Management, 32 (5) 1006-1019.

French, S. (2018) Between globalisation and Brexit: Migration, pay and the road modern slavery in the UK hospitality industry. Research in Hospitality Management, 8(1) 23-32.
Commentary on Denis's discussion paper, 'Vulnerability and exploitation of migrant workers in the United Kingdom tourism industry'
Author: Hatsumi Sekiguchi
This discussion paper explores the topic of migrant workers in the tourism hospitality sector and focus on a country; the UK. This topic is similar to my own research, thus I thought it is interesting to comment on for me.

This paper is well structured and well researched about the situation faced migrants working in the UK hospitality. Firstly, author stated statistics of migrants as it recently has been dramatically changed and increased due to the EU enlargement in 2004 and in 2007. Then, the reasons of the influx of migrants to UK tourism industry is presented; to get higher wage and language skill. However, ‘easy to find’ also can be considered as a part of reason as tourism sector occupies 10 per cent of all industries in the UK (National Statistics, 2016). Author revealed an interesting point that employers prefer to hire foreign workers as they have high working ethic, high education and positive attitude compare to British workers, however, customers prefer to be served by locals. It may be because of their lack of language skill, and it can be a factor of discrimination by customers as this author stated.

It is the good point that the author presented the lack of unionisation is the biggest factor of their vulnerability at work. However, from my perspective, the lack of written employment contract/ statement can be the biggest factor of exploitation. Surprisingly, it is reported that 670,000 migrants settled and worked illegally in the UK in 2007 as it is difficult for them to get a job (London School of Economics, 2009). Anderson (2006) stated that even though they are treated unequally and illegally, they cannot complain or report it because of their illegal working status. Further, the lack of language skill and knowledge of local labour market can be vital reasons of the exploitation as they cannot have discussion with their employers.

Finally, this author presented an interesting solution; SEE formula which allow government to find that the business exploit from migrant workers. It can be surely the effective solution as this is legally empowered.

In conclusion, this paper does not fail to recognise main issues and possible solution. However, it could be more furthered if the author includes upcoming Brexit as he mentioned about UK hospitality sector. This topic is quite important and interesting, and should be discussed for the future of the UK tourism industry.

References:

Anderson, B., Ruhs, M., Rogaly, B. and Spencer, S. (2006) Fair enough? Central and East European migrants in low-wage employment in the UK. York, UK: The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Oxford.

Janta, H. (2011) Polish migrant workers in the UK hospitality industry: Profiles, work experience and methods for accessing employment. London, UK: International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.

National Statistics (2017) Migrant Worker Scan: quality assurance of administrative data used in population statistics. London: National Statistics. Available from https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/methodologies/migrantworkerscanqualityassuranceofadministrativedatausedinpopulationstatisticsjan2017 [accessed 21 May].