Wage Pressures, Operational Costs Undercut French Hotel Industry
Unions And Employers Not Close To Hotel Wage Agreement
Wracked by chronic staffing shortages, the French hotel industry is negotiating pay raises with unions while calling on employers to improve working conditions and help win back disaffected workers.
Wracked by chronic staffing shortages, the French hotel industry is negotiating pay raises with unions while calling on employers to improve working conditions and help win back disaffected workers.
The hospitality industry in France has been hit by one of the sharpest labor shortages, with approximately 237,000 jobs lost between February 2020 and February 2021.
“COVID-19 is exacerbating existing workforce shortfalls two-fold,” said Roland Héguy, confederate president of hotel industry trade body the Union des Métiers et des Industries de l’Hôtellerie, or UMIH. “We were already 15% short of employees before the epidemic. Today, we are missing 30%."
In France, as in other countries, the pandemic has been a turning point for hotel staff.