Since the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, the catering world has been facing a shortage of staff. As summer approaches, tourists are always more numerous and yet 200,000 seasonal positions could remain vacant.
To compensate for this lack, the seasonal branch of the UMIH (Union des Métiers des Industries de l’Hôtellerie) proposed to the government to recruit 4,000 Tunisian seasonal workers. Umih plans to hire young Tunisians who have graduated from specialized schools on the other side of the Mediterranean and who cannot find work in their country.
? Hospitality and catering
? More than 200,000 seasonal positions could be unfilled this summer in #France
✅ Faced with this labor shortage, the Union of trades & hotel industries #Umih wish to recruit staff #Tunisia ? https://t.co/rMScR2b22R— FRANCE MAGHREB 2 (@FMAGHREB2) May 12, 2022
A solution welcomed without much enthusiasm by Parisian restaurateurs like Nicolas, chef of the restaurant L’Accolade, who is busy chopping chives, looking dubious. ” I have other concerns than whether they are Tunisians, Moroccans…, he confides at the microphone of Marine Salaville of the Economy department. If the guy can’t find anyone to work with, I don’t know.
I looked for a second for six months, I couldn’t find anyone because they don’t want to work in the evening… I don’t know if it’s a good solution or not. If he does, it’s because, for him, it’s a good solution, I think.
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For the butler, Malick, this initiative is very similar to the one which led Corsica, in October 2020, to hire 900 Moroccan workers on short contracts, to come and harvest clementines. ” It doesn’t bother me, but it’s a bit like “we take them, we need you, and then you leave.” These are CDDs. “We need you, thank you, goodbye!” »
“ You have to know how, do you want to take on people, people who want to work, who don’t mind working and then see what there is to do in the future “, continues Malick.
Youssef is a waiter. For him, it would first be a question of training the unemployed French people. ” I’m not against them bringing foreigners back, I don’t mind, but after the people who are there, who are on the RSA, unemployed, what are they going to do?, Youssef asks. They didn’t all change jobs during confinement, that’s not true. In my opinion, it is because they are well paid unemployed. The waiter also said he was worried about a possible discrepancy between these Tunisian seasonal workers and the habits of French restaurants.
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