Fight for existence: bakers in the district of Miesbach feel a shortage of skilled workers
Created: 12/14/2022, 5:00 p.m
Still practicing her job after retirement: Barbara Pappert from the Gschwendtner bakery in Miesbach.
She advocates raising awareness of aspects that are not visible, such as social exchange.
© Thomas Plettenberg
The shortage of skilled workers and workers can be felt in many sectors.
Many bakeries are struggling to survive.
The situation in the district at a glance.
District
– Every day, Barbara Pappert talks to people who have no one else, listens to their problems, their worries.
Pappert is a shop assistant in a bakery.
It is mostly older people who come to the Gschwendtner bakery in Miesbach, order a coffee and – often quite casually – tell their stories.
"It's a completely normal, nice part of my job, which I've been doing for 20 years," says Pappert.
"However, this side of the work is often not seen." Actually, she is already retired.
However, the pension is so low that she is forced to continue working as a mini-jobber.
The companies depend on people like Barbara Pappert.
Because there are currently no sellers or bakers themselves. According to the Chamber of Crafts and Trades in Bavaria, the number of people working in bakeries fell from 63,332 to 59,800 between 2011 and 2021, and the number of bakeries fell by around 700.
In the district, the number fell from 28 to 25 between 2011 and 2021.
Guild foreman wants to present his profession attractively
Jakob Gritscher feels the shortage of skilled workers in his bakery in Neuhaus, even if, according to him, this is still limited in the district.
He too had to reduce the opening times in his branch to half days.
He does this primarily to protect his employees, some of whom are absent anyway.
"We simply don't have any unemployed in the district," he says.
"The young set their priorities on other things - especially when it comes to working hours." According to Gritscher, there are currently only ten baker's apprentices in the districts of Miesbach and Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen.
"I'm basically optimistic, but I don't see any sign of us recruiting new staff quickly," he admits.
"We are all at a loss."
According to the new head of the guild, Florian Perkmann from Miesbach, there is a particular lack of experienced workers between the ages of 30 and 50.
These are difficult to obtain due to the low birth rates.
At the same time, the "young people are often not that far along".
So there is a lack of experienced workers and at the same time of young people.
"Here, the craft has missed a lot," says Perkmann.
"Especially in academic families, manual trades of all kinds are often burdened with negative prejudices." This should be changed by the manual trades, but also by schools.
Perkmann believes students need to be taught that an apprenticeship can be just as fulfilling and rewarding as a college degree.
At the same time, it is up to the craft businesses themselves to present their industry attractively.
For example, bakers must succeed in inspiring young people to take up this profession, despite the fact that they usually start work very early.
Employees benefit from collective wage agreements
The board of directors of the municipal company Regionalentwicklung Oberland (REO), Alexander Schmid, believes that the respective guilds should emphasize their unique selling points and draw the attention of companies to themselves.
Failure to do this is a common reason for problems when recruiting new employees.
Schmid refers to formats such as the training tour, which REO will be offering again next spring: "Here young people from all types of school have the opportunity to get to know apprenticeships in the district."
In the meantime, at least in financial terms, a little progress has been made towards solving the problem: wage increases were achieved in negotiations between the Germany-wide trade union for food, beverages and restaurants and the state guild association for the Bavarian bakery trade.
From 2023 full-time employees will earn 150 euros more per month.
Full-time employees in sales will receive 165 euros more.
A minimum wage of 13 euros will apply to the lowest tariff group from the New Year.
With this, the state guild association wants to deliberately distance itself from the statutory minimum wage of 12 euros.
Barbara Pappert believes that more changes are needed to preserve the regional bakers and is even critical of the above.
She can imagine that higher wage payments only place an even greater financial burden on employers.
"They're already struggling with the competition from the discounters anyway," she says.
Pappert himself would like people to be more aware of the aspects of their work that are not visible – “so that young people can also see that working in a bakery can be very enjoyable”.
Paulinus Bronisch and Daniel Krehl
Perkmann follows Stelmaszek
New guild foreman
The bakers' guild Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen-Miesbach has a new foreman.
After Konrad Stelmaszek (left) retired from Königsdorf (we reported), the position had to be filled.
In the Binderbräu in Bad Tölz, the members elected the previous deputy Florian Perkmann (right) from Miesbach as his successor.
The new deputy foreman is Andreas Wiedemann from Bad Tölz.
Stelmaszek, who held the office for 14 years, received a gift basket and the Golden Master's Certificate as a farewell.
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After Konrad Stelmaszek (l.) retired, the position had to be filled.
Florian Perkmann (right) has now been elected the new chief of the guild.
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