Discrimination in the Hotel Industry: A Report on Part-Time Students and Full-Time Employees

Running head: DISCRIMINATION IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY 1
A Report On Discrimination in The Hotel Industry
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

DISCRIMINATION IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY 2
A Report On Discrimination Between Part Time Students and Fulltime Employees in The
Hotel Industry
Introduction
The hospitality industry is known for the employment of large numbers of part time
employees due to diversity in the jobs and the seasonality in the tourism sectors. Most hotel
industries hold that part time workers should have written patterns of work that specifies the
hours and days work as well as their employment patterns (Ashton, Maguire & Spilsbury, 2016).
Since the sector is characterized by long trading hours it normally resolves to use student
employees to ease labor shortages. However, most managers feel that students are a non-reliable
source of labor because they leave work to return home at the end of the term (Mooney &
Jameson, 2018). A recent study in New Zealand showed that both small and large business in the
hospitality sector are seeking sustainability and efficiency of service delivery since tourism
contributes greatly to the GDP. However, part time employees face a lot of challenges like the
unpaid wages, loss of wages and poor remuneration compared to their full time counterparts in
the same job specifications.
This report provides an in-depth analysis of the causes and effects of discrimination
between the part-time student employees and full time workers in the hotel industry. Certainly,
the hotel industries prefer part time workers because they help them in meeting labor demands
during peak seasons, low costs of labor, diversity, skills and reduction in the workloads for
others (Broadbridge, 2017). However, the problem is that there still exists discrimination
between part time student and the full time workers. It has been reported that the part time
student’s employees do not get promotions and other benefits like medical care received by the
full time employees (Lucas & Keegan, 2008). Also, managers tend to treat them less favorably

DISCRIMINATION IN THE HOTEL INDUSTRY 3
due to lack of reliability and lack of commitment to work. In 2016, an Indian international
student working in New Zealand revealed that they are they were not adequately remunerated
because they had signed no contract is making it had to pursue legal options. According to most
employers working for over 32 hours a week qualifies someone for full time employment
benefits.
The wicked problem
Students’ motivates for part time employment is majorly economic, and thus they seek to
earn money for general daily upkeep while also getting experience in the job markets
(Gbadamosi, Evans, Richardson & Ridolfo, 2015). On the other hand, employers in the hotel
industries prefer part time students for a couple of reasons. First, part time students provide a
flexible workforce in the service sectors like tourism and consumer service industries. In most
countries, it is argued that nonstandard employment like part time employment provides easy,
cheap and flexible labor due its ability to be tailored to meet the seasonal surges in the labor
requirements (Poulston & Jenkins, 2016). Also, hospitality industries prefer young workforce
which is hypothesized to be effective in services delivery. Besides the use of part time worker
also allow employers to adjust to the fluctuations in the workload since labor demands are often
consistent with student study patterns like during the weekends, evenings or non-class hours
(Alberti, 2014).
Secondly, part time students help employers to achieve their labor demands at a lower
cost than full time employees. The recruitment of students for part time employment in the hotel
industry helps to meet odd hour need at a lower cost since most of the agreements are often
informal and there is no liability to employers like insurance, medical and retirement benefits.
Due to the seasonality of business in the hospitality sector, employers benefit by maintaining a