The employment crisis in the hospitality sector.

Well this lad did:

He's been awarded compensation. A fairly modest amount of it IMHO. But I wonder if he'll actually see any of the cash. And if he'll find it hard to get jobs in future.

I think that poster and others missing the entire point and they seems to be under some bizzare and ill informed notion the hospitality sector is entirely staffed by teenagers.

Teens, college students are a small proportion of Employment in this sector and primarily work part time hours. Whilst it's entirely unacceptable they are treated badly, I can assure those in any doubt, the abuses, ill treatment, Shenanigans, Excessive hours, Non payment of wages & Bank Holidays, entitlements to name but a few issues are not limited to teenagers or college students but affect full time professional staff.

Students are often thrown in the deep end, no training, no support and indeed I recall numerous reports dealing with appalling experiences people had when going to places that had just reopened after the pandemic, essentially owners thought they'd get away with operating with inexperienced staff, cheap labour so to speak and there was some astonishing stories of bad customer experience, most of whom did not blame the staff as they could see what was going on. Notwithstanding the shocking gouging that went on for those who staycationed.

I am fully informed, having spent almost 30 years in the sector both home and abroad.

It's an extremely difficult industry to work in and not helped by a large cohort of absolutely clueless business owners who wouldn't understand hospitality if it came up and slapped them in the face. Cowboys is what they are described as in the industry and sadly there are far too many.

It's also important to add, there are excellent employers also and infact it's those very employers and business owners who've absolutely no problem problem retaining staff because they treat them well.

It's very easy to differentiate from a Quality and consistant establishment. If it has long term, quality and happy staff it's not only a sign of a happy and productive work environment, those staff offer professional, Quality consistency and excellent service. Establishments with high staff turnover leads to dreadful standards and services, it creates a thouraghly unpleasant working environment which effects customers experiences, it's really not rocket science. I know for a fact some owners bizzarely seem to think it makes good business sense to turnover staff and its utterly perplexing.

This Industry and indeed its representation bodies seriously need to look in the Mirror, the Pandemic was a kick in the Arse but as I've said before it's not the first nor will it be the last staffing crisis in this sector unless things change Drastically.

Likewise, I worked in hotels and pubs throughout university. Had one employer refuse to pay my holiday pay after 9 months with no break, all weekends worked and split shifts galore, he also refused to pay us after 12pm even though we could be working till 2am. Left that job and the next employer never registered me for tax despite taxing me and taking the money for himself and then I had another employer who treated all the staff like shite and a few years later came to national attention for firing a female employee who got pregnant.

Its a horrible sector where more often than not the employer you are working for is an arsehole just out to exploit people. Owners are also minting it but forever crying the poor mouth while they swan around in brand new cars and take numerous holidays abroad. One boss I had took 4-5 golf holidays a year then a ski holiday and a sun one with the family. If anyone asked him for a payrise he'd tell them they were lucky to have a job. Place was a pub with a turnover of just under 1.4 million a year but all the staff were struggling on minimum wage.

After uni I worked in hospitality in Australia on a working holiday visa and the conditions and wages & conditions there were like night and day compared to here. The sector was fully regulated by the government and you had award rates of pay, specific minimums by job. At the time it was $14 an hour but it was easy enough to get higher than that, I worked a lot in Star City Casino in Sydney for $18 an hour. You could live on it easily and actually have disposable income rather than here where you are just doing it to survive and make rent.I used to always feel sorry for colleagues who I worked with in it who had kids and mortgages to pay and were barely scrimping a living but had no skills to do anything else, they were stuck in a right trap. I wouldnt advise anyone to work in the hospitality sector here, the wages and conditions are so bad that people in it have a very low quality of life.

I've seen many chefs, bar tenders, ex hotel staff and others who have been involved in hospitality go back to education while they were out of work the last few years. Many ended up getting qualifications and ended up in totally different and more employee friendly industries. As someone who has worked in hospitality in the last, albeit in my teens I can say that you learn some great life skills in customer facing hospitality jobs but you also learn it's not something you would want to do long term.

Many people have better job options now and it's why they are struggling to attract people. Our cost of living and accomodation crisis makes it extremely difficult for those on any low paid jobs in general which makes people look elsewhere. This is s major issue facing lower paid jobs in the country but like everything else will take years to fix, if ever.

I was in the company of a brother of mine who was a manager in the hospitality industry and another hospitality industry person.

They were talking about all the problems they had with staff etc.

I queried why this was, why was there so much attrition.

I worked in IT and it was far more civil.

They both explained that because the vast majority of the workforce are young and casual trust is low between them and management.

People don't turn up for shifts, turn up late, turn up poorly attired, or just plain leave the job without notice.

So it's a chicken and egg situation, why should the industry invest heavily in the workforce when they may be gone tomorrow to the place down the road or not turn up because they are sick with a hangover.

I worked in the industry when I was a teen and in college, I was late, poorly turned out, walked out on at least one job etc etc.

But I went back to the industry when I as almost 50 for a short period to fill a gap, my attitude and my experience the second time round was much better.

I used the word civil to describe something that was "not attritional"

I did not mean it in the literal sense of being civil to one and other.

As I said it's a chicken and egg situation, if the employee treats the job as disposable the employer will treat the employee as disposable.

If the employer treats the employee as disposable then the employee will have no respect for the job or employer.

I'm afraid utter nonsense, firstly most Hospitality employees are supplied with Uniforms , if they present themselves poorly that's on their Manager's. I should mention that whilst employee's supplied Uniforms, employee's generally have to pay for part or all of the cost of said Uniforms.

If an establishment is overly reliant on casual staff or has high staff turnover that too is on Management

I'm not at all sure what you mean by being Civil , however Mutal respect is certainly required and again Management should lead by example.

Again if an establishment has a poor record of retaining staff wether they be part time or full time, that's on Management or perhaps a symptom of lack of it .

The very best establishments retain their staff, Treat them with respect, Train and encourage them, pay their wages and on time and by default keep their customers through productive and positive staff giving the very service they can.

It's not that work is beneath them but it seen as an entry level job as the wages are so low. As soon as someone gets something better they leave. Someone passing through isn't going to have the same overheads.

With COVID a lot of experienced staff had to go try something else. It might be hard to get them back.

I see a lot of very young and inexperienced Irish staff in places now. I know from a recent recruitment event they will take anyone with a pulse.

I know a couple of people who have left because they couldn't get enough shifts to move to bigger places like hotels. So if you try to mitigate staff issues with more people across less shifts that can backfire.

Iirc hospitality has the highest business failure rate of all sectors. I know people will say pay staff more but is it possible to pay them more?

I know a guy who decided to reopen a local gastropub n said it's a nightmare he hasn't taken a fiver out of it in 5+ years. The same lad has a different business which as he says himself is flying which subsidises the restaurant. Only for it he'd be long gone.

Customers are not responsible for the poor treatment of staff in the trade by their employers. That's some deflection.

because there really isn’t any enforceable law that says you can’t .. employment law is very much in the favour of employers.. it’s another reason multinationals love it here…

if a company breaks what law there is, the hassle and inconvenience and initial expense for an employee, to get lawyered up and spend money going through processes is quite daunting…

I mean this with the greatest possible respect but fxxk the hospitality sector in Ireland. Its a shake down. The prices they look to charge, and generally get, are highway robbery. Ive zero sympathy for them. The only reason they want the visa situation sorted is for cheap labour. Thats all. They wont pay decent people the wage the are worth. I rarely go out and have a meal etc in aireland anymore. Quality across the board is generally poor bar a few exceptions and prices are top dollar.

In a popular hotel just outside Dublin i had the pleasure of paying 44 euros for two bowls of soup 1 sandwich and a pot of tea. I choked.

Was the price not on the menu before you ordered this fictional meal?

Id disagree. Maybe not a bad meal but certainly for the money which is exhanged i feel cheated. Pub grub has also gone to the dogs lately.