faced with a shortage of staff, Umih is looking for seasonal workers in Tunisia

The Union of Hotel Trades and Industries (Umih) has been talking for six months with the French Ministry of the Interior and the equivalent of Pôle emploi in Tunisia. To As summer approaches, French restaurateurs and hoteliers fear they will run out of people. Despite the 16% increase in the lowest wages, negotiated last December, theUmih, the main organization in the sector, is worried. More than 200,000 seasonal positions could go unfilled this summer, ortwo times more than in previous years. So, the Umih looks towards foreign labor.

The Umih plans to thhiring for the summer young Tunisians who have graduated from specialized schools on the other side of the Mediterranean and who cannot find work in their country. They will be able to submit their application on a recruitment platform. “We start with Tunisia, because they are the ones who are asking”, Explain Thierry Grégoire, the president of the seasonal Umih who carries the project. “Then there are good administrative and legal practices with them, and the goal is that in 2023, we have thousands and thousands of applications.”

“For us, it’s an additional tip that should allow us to reduce the recruitment divide. We have a real shortage of people who apply and that’s what we have to reduce.”

Thierry Grégoire, president of the seasonal Umih

at franceinfo

Tunisian seasonal workers will come to work for a maximum of five months. They will be paid at least the minimum wage, respecting the salary grids established in the hotel and restaurant sector. “The counterpart is that it is absolutely necessary that the company have this reception capacity”specifies Thierry Grégoire. As much as the sedentary seasonal workers have family in the territory who can house them, as much as this population which comes from Tunisia, it must be housed.

Thierry Grégoire appeals in particular to the public authorities: to offer low-cost housing, in order to reduce the bill paid by the bosses to accommodate their seasonal workers.