The hotel industry has been one of the activities hardest hit by the pandemic, and it looks like it will not be able to tap into its full potential once restrictions are lifted. That is, the provincial institutions are faced with the summer season. Waiter shortage of not less than 18,000, because they cannot find enough personnel willing to work in the sector. As a result, many bars and restaurants will choose to maintain covid capacity and reduce shifts; these measures would logically also mean a reduction in the offer for customers. business associations, a threat to the revival of tourismUnions believe that the problem will be solved by improving working conditions.
All indications are that the summer that is about to begin will record very similar pre-pandemic scales in the number of visitors to Alicante province. However, the hotel industry will not be able to rely on the same level of activity for the simple fact that it will not have enough staff. Taking the data from last year as a reference, everything shows that this summer campaign will proceed on very similar parameters, while there are already many difficulties in finding labor force. 75% less hiring or what does the 18,000 worker shortfall mean compared to 2019? How could it be otherwise due to its flagship status the main problem will be in Benidorm6,000 waiters are needed as INFORMATION is already progressing. It corresponds to the rest of the other 12,000 provinces.
Mar Valera, president of the Provincial Association of Catering Entrepreneurs in Alicante (Apeha), said last year’s challenges were reproduced this year, as it were, “there are few organizations as we are. We will work with the same desks we had during the pandemic and without repeating shifts so as not to burn the staff we hired. For the industry representative, this It’s not just a problem of the hotel industry, because – he emphasizes – almost everyone complains about the same thing. Craftsmen are being lost and people are not aware of it. not everyone can be formal or impressive. A large part of the blame lies with families who want a university-educated child, as if there were no other options.” Valera also points out that it is already impossible to find people with vocational training, “so we just feel good about ourselves. IT”.
Nuria Montes, general secretary of Hosbec hotels association, points out that the problem affects not only bars and restaurants, but also hotels. “He states that out of the 7,000 employees we have, about 2,000 are on temporary contracts during the high season. That’s where we’re having a hard time”. In his words, it’s not a question of salary “because favorable conditions are offeredand even that way they can’t fill vacancies”. Montes warns that this shortage of staff has had more than harmful consequences, emphasizing tourism recovery.
And what do the unions think? According to them, the solution is improve working conditions. Paco García, CC OO’s general secretary at l’Alacantí-Les Marines, underlines the need to enforce collective agreements so that “there is a regulation of actual working time”. He also claims that temporary contracts go into the discontinuous fixed. Similarly, his UGT counterpart, Yaissel Sánchez, is self-explanatory emphasizing that he is now in the state. There are 17,000 people registered as unemployed in the hospitality department“So if they don’t decide to work, it’s because the conditions weren’t right,” he says.
From transfer to other sectors to migrant march
The restrictions recorded during the epidemic hide behind a very important part of the workforce loss suffered by the accommodation sector. Nuria Montes, general secretary of the Hosbec employers’ association, touches on issues such as the transfer of workers to other sectors or the return of migrants to their country of origin.
As he explains, the Employment Regulatory Files (ERTE) has managed to retain permanent workers. But the same did not happen for storms, which had to live on other activities such as logistics and construction in order to survive. Likewise, many immigrants working in the hotel sector also stated that they preferred to return to their countries due to covid, adding, “Therefore, he underlines – we have now seen that all these people are missing with such a rapid recovery”.
Another factor, Montes said, is that “there are people who are satisfied with the benefits they receive and do not turn it into work. Otherwise, it is not explained that there are three million unemployed and we will not be able to find a job”.