The delegation in the Azores of the Hotel, Restaurant and Similar Association of Portugal (AHRESP) warned today of a serious lack of labor in the sector, which motivates the operation of some establishments at “half gas”.
“Unfortunately, this is the reality that we are experiencing in this high season, a situation that AHRESP had already stated that it could happen and that it has become a reality,” said the president of the association’s regional structure, Cláudia Chaves, in statements to the Lusa agency.
According to the businesswoman, the situation “is transversal” to the Azorean archipelago, but it is more pronounced in the islands with more tourist flows, such as São Miguel, Terceira, Pico, Faial, Flores and Santa Maria.
“Entrepreneurs try to recruit, but unfortunately this workforce does not appear,” said Cláudia Chaves.
According to the official, in the area of the tourism sector, directly and indirectly, “14 thousand people are missing” in the Azores.
And it is, above all, the restoration that faces “serious problems” of recruitment, so that some spaces “do not have the possibility” to keep doors open all day and choose to “close more than once a week”, according to the president of AHRESP in the Azores.
“And many opt for lunch or dinner. They close during one of those periods due to lack of manpower,” he said, adding that restaurants are unable to extend their opening hours.
Cláudia Chaves reinforced that these were quick solutions that restaurants found to survive the high season with a lack of labor.
For the president of the AHRESP structure in the Azores, working hours in the sector are one of the main problems, along with the issue of public transport.
“There needs to be a change in the legislation at the level of the Labor Code. People don’t even show up for interviews because of the schedules presented to them. The schedules should be continuous hours, between morning and lunch, and, in a second period, between afternoon and dinner “, he explained to Lusa.
In addition, workers and jobseekers in restaurants, bars and the like “also complain about the lack of public transport in the evening hours”, he pointed out.
In his opinion, it is necessary to “quickly sit at the table” the associations, the Regional Government, the unions and the professional schools and evaluate possible changes to the legislation at the level of the Labor Code to make the tourism sector “attractive” in professional terms.
“All this is a joint work that should already be done, to make the tourism area attractive, because it is a bet that the Regional Government is making. We want to have restaurants with quality service but, for that, we have to have qualified people and to achieve this goal there must be attractiveness in the sector”, defended Cláudia Chaves.
