Latest fancies regarding labour market in the neoliberal order: From a flexible labour market to an instantaneous labour demand (The case of student employees in tourism)

This study investigates student employees in tourism. As known well much of the workforce intensified in casual works is preferred by their specific traits sex, age, ethnicity, etc. It has been observed that the demand for student labour in casual works is increasing as well. Especially on-demand employment of the university students has been widening in many different areas. Being a student itself rather than skill or experience is the main reason to be employed in contingent jobs. In this respect student labour is a useful part of the reserve army of labour. In the case of tourism in Antalya university students are mainly recruited by so-called agencies for the events such as symposium, congress, conference and festival. It can be argued that in reality the so-called agencies function as an employment agency. In this framework this dissertation examines two facts: rising on-demand employment and student labour in contingent jobs on which there is no scientific research. The main aim of this study is to show that these two facts are a reflection of the struggle conducted systematically towards labour market and labour relations to create a docile labour ready for use on-demand employment in favour of neoliberal accumulation regime. In this study based on a fieldwork I try to have a deep understanding of student employment on daily basis in tourism. In this context, I interviewed face to face with 24 student employees studying at Akdeniz University and with a person running an agency by using a semi-structured questionnaire. All of respondents stated that they can get jobs just for 3-5 days during the events which are symposium, congress, conference and festival, and that wages and other working conditions change all time. Students are called for these jobs one week or one day before –sometimes just a couple of hours before. My argument is that the phrase disposable labour seems highly convenient to discuss this kind of employment.