Staff shortages in the hospitality industry have led to cutback in restaurant and hotel services, reduced opening hours and some temporary closures in rural areas, the BBC has reported. Alex Barry, a 21-year-old who manages the Red Lion pub and hotel in Llangadog, Carmarthenshire, sometimes works alone when no other staff are available. “It’s so hard to find people,” he said. Welsh government officials said they were working with the industry to recruit and hold on to staff.
An unnamed hotelier based in north Wales said he had mothballed floors of rooms and had to reduce working hours due to insufficient staff. “It’s been a last resort,” he said, emphasizing that admitting to the situation was still difficult for many in the sector who remained affected by it. David Chapman, executive director of UK Hospitality Cymru said similar measures had been taken by other businesses in the industry. “We’ve had shortages of people who want to clean rooms and shortages of chefs,” he said.
Samantha Harper, managing director of the Red Dragon Pubs that owns the pub where Barry works, said at one point she had offered a £500 ($694) reward to staff who could find a chef for the business. During the year such rewards were offered, Harper said they only got one person who left after 12 weeks. Chapman spoke of the industry facing myths of low pay and long hours, but insisted wages had increased by 50% over the past four years.
A spokesperson for the Welsh government said they were working with businesses to provide funding for more quality and permanent jobs for the industry. They also confirmed £78m was being invested into the industry “to provide a sixth successive year of support for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with their non-domestic rates bills
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