Centre for Hospitality and Employment Research (CHER)
CHER is a small multidisciplinary research centre headed by Professor Rosemary Lucas. There are currently a number of research associates attached to the Centre - Ahmed Fawzy, Hazem Halim, Jeremy Head, Norma Lammont, Michele Langlois, Bill Rowson and Shobana Sehkaran.
CHER investigates a wide range of employment issues within the hospitality and tourism industries. CHER's main objective is to undertake useful research that will inform policy and produce practical findings that will enable policymakers and practitioners to address problems and implement change.
CHER's expertise lies in examining the employment relations in the hospitality and tourism industries in Britain and internationally, the UK National Minimum Wage (NMW), and student part-time employment in Britain and Central and Eastern Europe. Other topics include the impact of employment legislation on the employment relationship, human resource practices within the service quality philosophy, employment contracts and training initiatives.
Many studies are comparative on an intra- and inter-industry basis, and may be national and international. For example employment relations within the British hospitality industry has been examined by size and sub-sector, and also in comparison with private services and the economy as a whole. Another set of studies on the NMW has compared the hospitality industry with other industries, notably the retail and clothing industries. Other minimum wage studies have focussed on local labour markets in North Wales and Shropshire.
CHER's current major project is a longitudinal study of the impact of the NMW in the hospitality and clothing industries. Employment relations in the British hospitality industry are being examined from new data sets taken from the Workplace Employee Relations Survey 1998 (WERS). In addition CHER is researching HRM in the Slovakian and Bulgarian hotel industries in conjunction with the International Centre for Research and Consultancy in the Tourism and Hospitality Industries (ICRC) in the Faculty of Food, Clothing and Hospitality Management.