Low-Wage Work in Germany

5. Still Lost and Forgotten? The Work of Hotel Room Attendants in Germany

CHAPTER 5 Still Lost and Forgotten? The Work of Hotel Room Attendants in Germany Achim Vanselow In Franz Kafka’s novel The Castle, written in the early 1920s, Pepi the chambermaid wrestles with her fate: “As a chambermaid one did in time come to feel one was quite lost and forgotten; it was like working down a mine” (Kafka 1988, 379). Pepi feels that she is “invisible ,” working hard without much recognition and little hope to make a better life. This example illustrates that room-cleaning work in German hospitality has always been associated with low social status .1 In the early days of the labor movement in this business, the trade union had to fight simply to ensure that employers paid chambermaids regularly for their work. Their compensation was made up of tips, board, and lodgings and sometimes a small cash wage. Such workers had to work many hours in order to earn enough money to survive in this way. The positive economic development starting with the German Wirtschaftswunder (West German economic boom of the 1950s) obstructs our view of the wage gap between the core industries of the German model and many private sector services. In the early 1960s, the average wages of employees in the hotel and restaurant industry represented only 75 percent of the average of the total economy. Moreover, working conditions were regarded as unattractive , especially the atypical working time arrangements that were widespread. Employers complained about labor shortages, but while the trade union demanded higher wages and better working conditions , employers recruited immigrant workers who were more tolerant toward bad working conditions (NGG 1962). Today the hotel industry is one of the economic sectors in Germany in which a significant proportion of workers receive low wages (62 percent). The working conditions typical of the industry, such as excessive working hours, frequent weekend and holiday work without extra pay, and unpaid overtime, remain another reason why such work holds little appeal for many workers. Although at least some of 214 those employed in room cleaning receive standard wages, almost 90 percent of the room attendants in the hotel industry receive pay below the low-wage threshold. Given that it is proving extremely difficult to enforce collective wage agreements, large numbers of workers may not receive even this low standard wage. The focus of this study is on how work and pay conditions for room cleaners in the German hotel industry have changed against the background of sustained structural transformation. Up to now, this sector has only rarely been studied, and very little is known about the working conditions of low-wage jobs in German hotels. Previous studies about the quality of hotel workers’ jobs in the American hospitality industry conclude that workload and work instability have increased in housekeeping jobs and that very low wages are delivered for performing what is a back-breaking job. Even highly profitable hotels from the upscale segment of the market offer jobs with generally bad pay and working conditions. There is at least scattered evidence in the United States of a “high-road” strategy that, with the help of qualifications and innovative solutions, is pointing the way toward a brighter future for workers in “bad jobs” in the low-wage sector (Bernhardt, Dresser, and Hatton 2003). The North American hotel union HERE recommends increased staffing, equitable wages, humane workloads, reasonable quotas, and training initiatives to improve advancement opportunities (Spurgaitis 2006). These results from the United States lead us to ask: What do jobs for room attendants in Germany look like under a different institutional setting? THE SAMPLE AND THE METHODOLOGY The research consists of eight case studies in city hotels that cater mainly to business travelers. The market segment was used as a selection criterion: the sample contains four hotels in the upscale market (four to five stars) and four hotels in the economy category (two to three stars). The differences between regional markets were taken into account by carrying out four case studies in locations with some of the highest occupancy rates in Germany and four in more peripheral areas. One case study was done in East Germany. Seven hotels belong to chains, and one is privately owned. The size of the hotels ranges from twenty-five to 770 rooms, and the number of employees (including external staff) from ten to more than 300. The upscale hoStill Lost and Forgotten? 215 tels are traditional and well...