Every sixth restaurant employee throws down

During the pandemic, around 400 cooks, service staff and hotel employees in the district quit their jobs.

But even before Corona, the search for personnel in the hospitality industry was difficult.

District -

Patrick Waldmann is currently making mushroom sauce. “Each ingredient offers endless possibilities to make something out of it,” says the 20-year-old. “I like this creativity.” Do you work on weekends, on public holidays and in the evenings? “I see that as an advantage. So I can lie by the lake when it's not overcrowded. ”Waldmann is in his second year of training as a chef - and a stroke of luck for the manager of the Miesbacher Bräuwirt, Johanna Huber. She says: “It is currently difficult to find a cook.” Many have moved to hospitals or old people's homes. “They have regular working hours and are ready in the afternoon.” Huber has lost two cooks in the past few months - she is looking for replacements.

She is not alone with that: According to the food-pleasure-restaurants (NGG) union, every sixth employee left the hospitality industry in the Corona year.

In the Miesbach district, 400 specialists have turned their backs on the industry.

“Hotel and restaurant employees mostly work for low wages.

If there is only the significantly lower short-time work allowance, that is not enough, ”says Manuel Halbmeier, NGG managing director of the Rosenheim-Upper Bavaria region and responsible for the Miesbach district.

In addition, the working conditions in the industry are not rosy anyway.

"In the lockdown, many suddenly had time to think - and looked for jobs with more attractive conditions."

Employers with works council structures get off lightly

According to Halbmeier, employers with works council structures got off lightly. The NGG negotiated collective agreements for system restaurants such as McDonald's, which provide for an increase in the statutory short-time allowance to 90 percent. “We also had top-ups of up to 100 percent.” Restaurateurs and hoteliers who want to find and retain employees have to offer better wages and more attractive working conditions.

Uwe Schulze-Clewing, managing director of the Miesbacher Hotel Bayerischer Hof, knows that too.

He is looking for six employees in service, kitchen, housekeeping and reception, as well as apprentices to become chefs and hotel managers.

"In the operational departments such as service and banquet it is difficult to find staff," says Schulze-Clewing, "there is really physical work, and that is exhausting."

Five days a week are not a matter of course in the hospitality industry

In order to be attractive nonetheless, the Bayerische Hof promises applicants a digital time recording system, a five-day week - not a matter of course in the hospitality industry - vacation and Christmas bonuses, free nights for relatives and the use of the fitness studio and sauna.

However, Schulze-Clewing considers the union's demand for higher wages to be unrealistic.

“I can only pay employees more if the margin is right,” he says.

In Miesbach - unlike in the Tegernsee valley - he cannot rent a room for 300 euros.

Nevertheless, Schulze-Clewing is confident that it will find staff.

"We have many long-term employees who recommend us." Only three of 65 employees resigned in the pandemic.

Fares Lozano, host of the Bräustüberl Valley, has a harder time - he only took over the inn in October.

He lost two employees in the lockdown: "They now work at the post office and in a factory".

That doesn't surprise him: "If you have to pay 900 euros for an apartment, you can't make ends meet with the short-time work allowance." He hopes to find a cook soon - "otherwise it will be tight".

No apartments for seasonal workers

Peter Hubert is also looking for a cook for his Herzogliches Bräustüberl Tegernsee - and numerous service staff.

He only lost one employee in the lockdown: “She was on short-time work, so of course she earned more at the supermarket checkout.” Hubert would like to hire seasonal workers from Austria over the summer.

"The problem, however, is that we cannot accommodate them because there are no apartments."

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