Countering the shortage of seasonal workers which weighs on the tourism and hotel and catering sector: this is the government’s objective, which is unveiling a series of measures to deal with it.
While out of 150,000 seasonal positions opened last year in the hotel and catering sector, only half have been filled, the government announced on Tuesday 30 May commitments in its “seasonal plan” For “improve the employment of seasonal workers in tourism”which generates “300 000 offers every year”.
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Faced with this shortage, the government is therefore presenting a series of measures led by the Ministries of Labor and Tourism, which are spread over three years (2023, 2024, 2025). These “recruitment tensions in tourism and more specifically hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants” have seen the day “since the end of the health crisis”says the government.
Retain workers from one season to the next
This plan aims in particular to retain seasonal workers, while half of them do not return from one year to the next. The government therefore wants to offer them contracts between each season. The plan intends “mobilize public authorities and professional sectors in tension” in order to “create an offer of suitable jobs during the off-season periods”. Pôle emploi and local missions will be mobilized to offer, for example, contracts in collective catering to those who work in restaurants in the summer.
10 million euros per year for training
Among the commitments announced by the government, there is also training: some short to learn, for example, the basics of the hotel industry, others longer. They must allow seasonal workers to rise in rank from one season to another. This is’“attract talent, welcome it and retain it by giving these professions real career and development prospects”explains the executive in a press release.
To succeed “an envelope of nearly 10 million euros per year will be specifically dedicated to the training of seasonal workers”. This year, this system will be used in particular to train recruits who will work on the organization of the Rugby World Cup, organized this summer in France, and the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
A platform for grouping housing offers
The government announces the launch in June of an internet platform which will bring together all the offers reserved for seasonal workers, including 1,300 university rooms which will be open to them this summer. The objective by 2025 is to bring together 6,000 accommodation units for seasonal workers, particularly in university and school boarding schools during holiday periods. The government also wants to “encourage private owners to rent out their accommodation for the benefit of seasonal workers” through “of a tax system” which exempts owners from tax on the rental income of accommodation rented to a seasonal worker, and which will be “extended until July 2024”.
“Seasonal counters” to help them in their efforts
This “seasonal plan” is a part of “Destination France Map” who aims “to develop seasonal counters, physical or dematerialized” For “guide the steps of seasonal workers in different areas”. These counters “must allow readable and easy access to information” on employment, housing and mobility possibilities for seasonal workers. Last summer, 57 of them existed, distributed in six regions, specifies the press release of the government.