Most liked posts in thread: Hospitality, Farming, Brexit, problems getting staff

In the respect of staff shortages Dave , it’s completely and utterly true. These jobs used to be filled by EU citizens. The ENTIRE HOSPITALITY industry thrived on them , a) because it was low pay and as a result employers got away with it, b) our native citizens thought it was beneath them, so we had to rely on EU citizens. Take that pool of labour away and you get millions of vacancies….Governments own data supports that comment and the Government are forced to admit it. ( But bizarrely NOT the reason why.)
The farming industry which is collapsing in these parts is the same , for exactly the same reasons. Oddly Truss’s own back yard….Explains why she hasn’t been seen in the constituency for two years !
She won’t last long!

 

My wife has it working in retail. Worked through covid to help keep food on the shelves yet physically and verbally abused for that effort. Only the other day I was in the a sandwich shop and the customer called the assistant a 'fecking spastic' because of a miscommunication. Sign of a lack of intelligence resorting to that.

 

Can you drive a train....

 

I've worked in hospitality on and off since i was 17, it is true mate. we've had huge staff recruitment and retention issues since brexit actually went through, initially in part because several staff on our books at both places ive been at in bristol are from mainland europe and went home. i put my CV out before I got my current job and got 7 interview offers in less than an hour, you have no idea how bad it has been broncs, so please dont dismiss something so readily you dont seem to know anything about.

How many customers would bitch and moan at having a 3/4 full flat pint topped up and them handed to them? loads. anything that gets poured and not drank then just has to go on wastage. nice idea but impractical for the amount of people that would kick off and potential waste.

cannot state this enough. the behaviour of the general public towards staff in our bars since lockdown and brexit has been nothing short of appalling, and is also a big factor as to why the business im a manager at struggles to retain/recruit staff. we pay very well for the industry we're in but a lot of people have just said the shit we now deal with on a regular basis just ain't worth it. Who wants to work unsociable hours being treat like a nobhead in a constantly understaffed venue.

 

Theres a general lack of respect in society these days that wasn't there a generation ago.

 

Nonsence

 

It's linked to the original post so I wouldn't worry, it's relevant.

I think it's also linked to the conversation about the university that was happening the other day. In the past, a student might welcome 3 house work on a Saturday afternoon for £20-30. It would pay for their night out. With the changing demographic of the student population the employees just aren't there.

 

So this demonstrates that the problem with labour shortages is a result of Brexit. Before Brexit these workers didn't need a visa, so they could come here easily on a flexible, seasonal basis, to work in agriculture, bars, restaurants, hotels etc. Now, many are deterred from coming by the necessity of work permits, visas etc and the smaller number that do still wish to come are held up by processing delays at our end. So the hospitality industry is seriously understaffed and farmers can't get their crops harvested. None of these problems would be happening except for Brexit.

 

No matter how you spin it free movement of EU workers to the UK depressed wages especially for lower skilled and lower paid. It may take a little time but lower paid will benefit as wages in general improve and rogue employers who exploit them go out of business

 

We'll probably get our knuckles wrapped for replying in this thread but Brexit was all about free movenent within the EU where as a member an other EU citizens could enter without a job.

I don't have a problem with workers from the likes of Poland etc coming to work here the government should allow such workers to enter the country with a visa and details of who they will be working for.

 

Only if they pay me well enough!

 

I'm just quoting a farmer the other day saying they can't get the people over who were happy to work in jobs that UK workers would not do (which in it's self is a disgrace to admit) the farmer was finding it difficult to get visa's for EU workers as there is a back log with regards the government not getting visas sorted, as I say no problem with workers from abroad coming here with the proof of having a job to come to.

 

A lot of our staff tend to be 18-21 year old lasses who are students and they are actually some of the ones that cop the most abuse off people disturbingly. I dont know what changed since brexit and covid but people's behaviour is nothing short of a disgrace to service employees now. All well and good behaving like this bu folk will find pretty quickly these places they do their shopping/drink in wont be there because people are sick of being treat like shit at work, life is hard enough as it is these days.

 

It does seem like it's easy to blame people from this country who are 'unwilling' to work in hospitality or pick fruit and vegetables. A lot of this type of work is seasonal and in several different locations. It suits young, nomadic travelers who haven't settled down yet. It doesn't suit young families.

 

If your not in work when there are jobs then that's your choice, they should not then be allowed to sign on or whatever they do in this day and age.
Benefits should not be a way of life seasonal or not.
We've all been young dailies at one time

 

Yes isn't it a shame that people work in such low paid jobs that they need top ups, so the employer is getting away with not paying a living wage and the tax payer you and me make the difference up.

So my pension is benefit behave.

 

staff shortages in relation to hospitality rather than seasonal farming. vast majority of people where working once a week for four hours is remotely worthwhile will be students.

with regard to sorting visas for eu folk for fruit picking etc, we've spent the last 8 years telling them how much we don't need them so nobody wants to now bronco! this has been a big issue for me with brexit, the amount of people with 0 knowledge of an industry trying to say we dont need these people or that process when in almost every example we absolutely bloody do. seasonal fruit/veg farming being a massive example of this.

 

I've not disagreed with regards comments in the past many low paid jobs were filled by EU workers that still could be the case if the government got the visa situation sorted out so we agree ?.

 

No. Because the point of free movement of labour was that people could move in and out of employment here on a hassle-free, flexible basis. Many people, such as students working in bars , restaurants and hotels, or fruit pickers looking for short term harvesting work, will not bother going through the onorous rigmarole of having to get visas, proof of employment etc when they can go to other EU countries for work with no such hassle. We have massively shot ourselves in the foot on this. Unless wages are increased significantly enough to attract more British people into these jobs - which would put prices up even higher than they are already rising - we are going to be stuck with staff shortages and small businesses going bust as a consequence for the foreseeable future.