To think that if the hospitality industry is struggling to fill vacancies...

[Susie477]

It should pay higher wages?

The hospitality industry is facing a ‘jobs crisis’, we are told. Restaurants are complaining that they can’t recruit the workers they need to re-open after lockdown. Many of the foreign workers they previously relied on have gone home after Brexit & covid, and they are struggling to recruit British workers to do minimum wage jobs with unsocial working hours.

So why not offer to pay more? Businesses accept that they have to pay competitively to recruit senior executives and justify high salaries by citing ‘market forces’. Why doesn’t the same apply to ordinary workers?

One of the alleged benefits of Brexit was supposed to be that the U.K. economy would be forced to break its addiction to an unlimited supply of cheap immigrant labour. So why isn’t it happening? Why aren’t wages rising?

@Susie477 I agree 100%.

It's about time the hospitality industry stopped treating people like shit, and offered a proper wage, with a set amount of hours, (not zero hours contracts,) and proper sick pay/holiday pay etc.

This serves them right, and they brought this all on themselves.

They were happy to pay shit wages and give unsociable hours, (and not a set amount of hours) to people. It's been very hard for many people born in the UK, and made managing their finances very difficult.

But foreign workers didn't care, as their meagre £100 a week was worth 10 times more back where they came from, and they lived 15 to a house here in the UK, so had very little outgoings over here.

But now Brexit and problems with citizenship (and laying people off during covid,) has resulted in a huge gap in hospitality workers, and NOW the companies are going to have to pay decent wages to people (and give regular hours,) if they want to gain - and KEEP - staff.

As you said 'businesses accept that they have to pay competitively to recruit senior executives and justify high salaries by citing ‘market forces’. Why doesn’t the same apply to ordinary workers?'

Excellent point. About time unskilled and not very well educated people were treated more fairly. Too much shit has been thrown at the working classes and the poor for too long.

The tide has turned. And about fucking time.

Yes haven't had a pay rise in 2 yrs now despite min wage going up twice.
Been a chef well over 30 yrs now and zero hours despite doing 50 plus for ages.
Lockdown gave us time to realise how hard we work and what not feeling exhausted felt like.All the places in my town have vacancies now.

I live near a well known tourist attraction and they have many, many vacancies they are struggling to fill - mostly all zero hours and NMW. Normally the vacancies would be filled quickly but this year they are really struggling to find people - probably because of zero hours and low pay.

Hospitality is a high risk sector in which to take a job right now. High risk because you’re likely to catch Covid. And high risk because in the event of case numbers rising your job will disappear and you’ll get no furlough. At present people are looking for jobs that won’t be affected by Covid - so a supermarket or call centre job is a better bet, even if you get paid less.

Hard physical work, dealing with the public, mainly in hot kitchens or pressured restaurant and bar workplaces, zero hour contracts, minimum wage and often not full time.

Many of the vacancies would be filled with students, but they're often learning online now - how many colleges and universities are teaching classes yet?

@whatisforteamum

Yes haven't had a pay rise in 2 yrs now despite min wage going up twice. Been a chef well over 30 yrs now and zero hours despite doing 50 plus for ages. Lockdown gave us time to realise how hard we work and what not feeling exhausted felt like.All the places in my town have vacancies now.

I hope this means you get better pay and conditions

Agree it's time for this, not just hospitality but retail too

@EmeraldShamrock

It'll worse when care homes have no staff.

This is a very good point.

If hospitality starts paying more, then carers will need to be said more to stay competitive. Good for the workers, but puts the cost of care up for the users. And risks shortages of carers.

Not sure what the end result would be, but shows the knock-on effect of major socio-economic chang

Living wage
Tips
Bonus
Staff well-being programme
Guaranteed hour contracts
Etc.

Had 3 chefs quit once we announced we were re-opening on the 17th after they received furlough for the duration, and having an absolute nightmare filling them.

The margins in the restaurant industry are tight at the best of times, but after covering overheads with virtually no income for the past 12 months we're on our knees.

I work in hospitality. My boss pays me just over NMW. I love my job, but couldn't survive on the wages if it weren't for the tips (which can add on a extra £1 an hour in Winter, and double that in Summer).

Working over the past year (when we were actually open) has been pretty shit. Some customers have treated us like total crap, and I wish I'd told them to fuck off. People want the fucking moon on a stick.

Mind you, so do some employers. I saw a job ad the other day for a waitress/waiter. They wanted someone to be available for shifts anytime 7 days a week, from 10am - 10pm. They had to have experience and have a Food Hygiene Certificate. They wanted so much for so little (NMW).

@Ridiculousradish

Mind you, so do some employers. I saw a job ad the other day for a waitress/waiter. They wanted someone to be available for shifts anytime 7 days a week, from 10am - 10pm. They had to have experience and have a Food Hygiene Certificate. They wanted so much for so little (NMW).

Bonkers

They wanted the moon on a stick before, if they want it now there's staff shortages....🤷🏻‍♀️

Ostara212 I know! Madness. The job spec was just ridiculous. They've got no hope.

I live in a student town that is also a tourist destination. "Help wanted" signs are in most pub and restaurant windows. Places are really struggling to find staff.

High wages aren't enough though. I'm in Oz where hospitality staff are fairly well paid, my teenager is on $22 an hour. But there are massive staff shortages here because there are no backpackers, they can't get anyone to pick fruit either. They are offering all kinds of financial incentives to get people to work regionally, but there just aren't enough people willing or able to fill the vacancies.

I worked in customer service most of my life and with the exception of one hospitality has always been the worst. (I include a toy shop at Christmas in that)

My worst one was when the manager demanded I wore high heels for a whole shift when I was 16. My sister went in and told him I would do it if all the male waiters did, I was let go the following week (that was the tip of the iceburg in that place, but the one that makes me smile now)

I have a few friends who were in hospitality who over the last year have got jobs in call centres. Better paid and easier. This kind of jobs has increased in the last year as more services go online. At my workplace, we have increased this team of staff.
If places can not recruit the staff they either have to pay more or provide more benefits. If they can not raise prices enough to offer an increased wage, then they will close.
I have an office job but would go into hospitality if the pay was good enough. But it is unlikely to happen most places. I think prices will rise alongside wages, and some places will close.

I think people don't realise that even in the best of times restaurants operate on very thin profit margins. There really is no way to raise wages a lot without raising prices, and that can be fatal for a restaurant.

What might help is making the job more humane -- nice managers, set rotas, free food etc

To be fair a lot of restaurants are terrible and deserve to close

It’s the same here in the US and we haven’t got Brexit to blame. It’s the insecurity. No one wants a job in the industry that’s going to be one of the first to be shut down and one of the last to reopen again.

Chefs and hospitality staff reconnected with their families and thought sod that for a game of soldiers.Lockdown forced us to get off the treadmill and now many have jumped ship.

There really is no way to raise wages a lot without raising prices, and that can be fatal for a restaurant.

That’s fine, but can you run a restaurant without staff? Surely that is fatal

Possible people eating out are going to have to pay more, not jyst in one place but everywhere

Good

Fuck all those places who treated their staff like shit. I hope they all go under

This crisis must only be in some areas. My friends son is trying to get a job in hospitality and there’s 200+ applications for every vacancy.

@Susie477 would you be willing to pay more when going to these places? I would do that staff can have higher wages, but plenty wouldn’t.

I think this is 4 fold:
1 Furlough and grants have just delayed the inevitable. And tbh, has simply saddled the country with additional debt that was unnecessary as hasn't "saved" the
2 most of these businesses rely on cheap labour for their businesses to stand a chance of surviving and really imo this means that many of these businesses aren't and never have been truly sustainable and not viable. Hence why so many would fold within a short time of opening, regardless of covid.
3 the work is unskilled labour, how can that really ever justify a higher wage when quite literally anyone could, if they wished/were available, replace the staff.
4 currently, anyone with commitments would be mad to get into one of these roles with the continued uncertainty. Especially if now on benefits and survived the 5 weeks with no pay already. Not saying that's morally "right", but currently understandable.

Because we want everything as cheap as possible

[quote Overthebow]@Susie477 would you be willing to pay more when going to these places? I would do that staff can have higher wages, but plenty wouldn’t.[/quote]
Personally, I wouldn't. I already think that £2.75-3.75 for a cup of tea is obscene!