These employees can bring some fresh air to professionals facing a labor shortage, pleads the new president of Umih.
The starred chef Thierry Marx, president of the main employers’ union in the hotel and catering industry, Umih, calls for the regularization of foreign employees in the sector “recognized for their skillsin an interview with Sunday newspaper . This call comes a month after the government unveiled the main lines of its immigration bill which must be studied by parliamentarians in 2023 and provides in particular for the creation of a residence permit “job in tensionto recruit in sectors with labor shortages.
“Our sector, catering, should already be considered to be in recruitment tension! We have 200,000 unfilled vacancies and surprisingly they are not on the list for recruiting foreign staff. Same thing for the hotel industry (…)“, rebels Thierry Marx in the columns of the JDD . The sector is indeed facing recruitment difficulties increased by the pandemic and the needs will increase further, according to the media starred chef who was very active and listened to by the public authorities during the health crisis.
Facilitate procedures
“When you are looking for pastry chefs or cooks and you cannot find any in France, you have to look elsewhere“, he explains. “We ask for a rapid regularization of our foreign employees recognized for their skills and who find themselves immersed in illegality overnight“Abounds Thierry Marx in this interview, insisting on this long-standing request from Umih, the union at the head of which he was elected at the end of October.
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In particular, he denounces theadministrative delays» or suspensions of residence permits without justification and the fragility of certain small businesses in the face of this uncertainty. “Creating a residence permit for shortage occupations would facilitate procedures and secure companies“, he adds, highlighting the rapid rise in skills for employees in the sector but also the dependence of others, such as the construction industry, on foreign employees.
“To confuse security issues with issues of integrating people who do not commit offenses and who are a vital force for companies does not seem to me to be the right method. You know, in the kitchen, mixing everything does not necessarily make a good dish.“, he concludes.