Hospitality operators pessimistic of any staff shortage resolution
Restaurant bosses have complained that ministers are actively choosing not to intervene in staff shortage issues with immigration changes and instead are focusing on longer-term training plans.
Sector leaders – including Nando’s boss Colin Hill and UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls – will form a new hospitality council, business minister Paul Scully announced today.
The group will help hospitality venues to thrive in a post-Covid world, ministers said. It will focus on apprenticeships, bootcamps and vocational T Levels.
But bosses said venues urgently needed ministers to make it easier for overseas workers to come to London.
“[In the UK,] the young people don’t want to do these jobs,” Joao Carlos, operations manager at Gordon’s wine bar, told CityAM. “There’s a big gap to cover. I’m not sure if training is going to help the industry.
“I think they should encourage people to come back to the country from Europe.”
“I don’t think [the government] realise the dimension of the problem,” he added.
Potential employees are being snapped up fast by venues, with some rival restaurants willing to raise salaries up to 40 per cent, the operator said.
The Embankment bar is currently six staff members down and is considering opening at 4pm, rather than in the morning, to relieve pressure on existing staff.
“[Staff] don’t have a social life or time with their partners, it becomes a problem when people are tired and they have no time to rest,” Carlos added.
Venues are struggling to hire trained chefs and door supervisors in particular.
Hawksmoor boss Will Beckett said he had “fairly low expectations” that the Government would do anything to help the crisis on a short-term basis.
“I don’t think it is fair to say the government don’t listen,” he said, “but it is fair to say they’re not getting to grips with the sector’s challenges.” “It is within their capabilities to solve some of these problems – not all of them, some of them require time.”
The steakhouse chain boss said it was partially on the sector to sell itself as an attractive place to work. “Working in hospitality is more enjoyable than working in an Amazon warehouse. It’s a lovely place to be, you get to work with food, drink and people.”
Small business minister Paul Scully called the launch of the new council “a real ‘Avengers Assemble’ moment for the industry.”
“We’re taking the next step in the journey to build back better from the pandemic by unveiling the experts who’ll be driving the reopening, recovery and resilience of the sector,” he added.
But Layla Moran MP, who is backing calls for a Covid recovery visa, said: “Businesses in my constituency are at risk. Instead of helping them, the Conservatives are ignoring the urgency of the problem.
“Of course we need to encourage more young Brits to enter hospitality and give them the skills to enter the sector in the future, as the Government’s strategy outlines, but Boris Johnson needs to help my constituents and the sector recruit the staff they need right now if they’re going to survive.”