The arrival of Easter, the second major tourist event of the year after summer, has brought excitements and concern to hoteliers across the Costa Blanca. They are happy of the projected recovery of the sector, but are concerned about the lack of catering staff, namely those who work in the kitchen and waiting on tables.
The lack of staff in restaurants, bars and hotel accommodation became a problem during the height of the Covid pandemic but looks set to return for Easter. There are thousands of waiters, cooks, mixologists, and other service roles needed in the province of Alicante, according to the spokesperson for the Association of Bars, Restaurants and Cafes of Benidorm (Abreca), Álex Fratini. For weeks, the associates have been asking for resumes of workers, “but we get very few for the great demand that there is, we don’t have enough”, he says.
Faced with this situation, in Benidorm they have even had to change their approach to recruitment, and in particular for the town, the once essential requirement to have experience and knowledge of English has been removed.
On the other hand, the arrival a year ago of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine has been a breath of fresh air. “We have hired Ukrainians who do not know Spanish and do speak English, we have helped them and they, for us, it has worked very well”, explains Alex Fratini.
The sector also has a handicap that it is having trouble overcoming: the lack of accommodation for workers. In fact, at the national level they have asked the State and the autonomous communities to invest money in tourist areas so that temporary employees have a stay.
they lack accommodation, it is not worth it for them to come », explains Fratini. Not only that, but tourist accommodation raises prices, making the situation worse.
The solution found by the association last year was to rent two apartments to make them available to the workers. This year they have tried to expand the offer “but there is not much available, we have not achieved more,” he laments.
Regarding the poor working conditions and the precariousness of contracts used by professionals in the sector, poorly paid and with draconian work shifts, the association is blunt: «There are alleged businessmen who make unfair competition and intrusion, who are the ones who leave the sector bad, we denounce those who do not comply».
The workers have a fixed discontinuous contract and, according to the agreement, receive a net salary of 1,300 euro per month.
