Portugal has run out of waiters and barmen. The hospitality association, AHRESP, states that "at the moment there is no skilled manpower available to work in the sector."
Waiters, barmen, kitchen helpers and room service staff are “the professionals who are most lacking in the area of catering and tourist accommodation.”
The Association estimates that, due to tourism growth, a further 40,000 new workers soon will be needed for the sector and the secretary general of the Association, Ana Jacinto, said that there already are businesses that don’t open due to the lack of staff and that at least half of catering companies already are suffering from a lack of employees.
"The note that entrepreneurs pass on to us is that they have business to open - but they don't because they do not have enough human resources," said Jacinto, adding that the tourism and catering sectors urgently need people, "even if they are less qualified."
According to a survey carried out by AHRESP, 52% of companies need to hire at least one new employee, concluding that room service is the area that has the biggest gap, "with almost 60% of companies needing staff."
In a statement issued by AHRESP's director general, José Manuel Esteves, he stressed that "there is a bottleneck in the national labour market and a shortage of skilled labour, which poses serious problems to the quality of our tourism supply and in the development of our businesses and their current and future investment."
The trade union covering hotel, tourism and restaurant workers said that 80% of catering workers receive the national minimum wage.
"Companies that pay better wages and offer good working conditions are not understaffed."
According to the union, "the problem of the sector is low wages, poor working conditions, endless working hours, non-payment of holidays, work shifts, illegal and clandestine work, and tobacco smoke throughout the work period."
"There is no other sector with such low wages, where there are such long hours, so off-the-books work, and so many workers with only one day off.”
At the moment, "difficult negotiations" are under way with employers' associations to restore wages at least to cover the rise of inflation during a long wage freeze period.
