Where is my boyfriend? British restaurants are looking for staff after Brexit

LONDON – Jordan Frieda knew he was having trouble finding waiters and kitchen staff for his three Italian restaurants.

But the severity of the crisis didn’t become apparent until he hired a recruiter to try and lure people from other restaurants.

Of the 100 people her agent contacted a day, she recalls, fewer than four responded, and often only one accepted come for a trial session.

“It’s worse than COVID, worse than the cost of energy,” says Frieda, a well-connected actor-turned-restaurateur who worked briefly under celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

“It was the most traumatic event of my restoration career. It absolutely was devastating and transformative“.

Freda is not alone.

London’s restaurants are so understaffed that they have had to reduce opening hours, close certain days of the week and, in extreme cases, close their doors altogether.

While the city’s once thriving foodie scene has also been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and rising energy prices, the labor shortage is almost entirely a consequence of Brexit, a prime example of how Britain’s exit from the European Union either reconfiguration your economy

London restaurants employed many waiters, chefs and bartenders from Italy, Spain and Greece.

That talent pool has dried up since Britain ended the free movement of workers from the European Union.

It is calculated that the 11% of jobs of British hospitality are vacant, according to a recent industry survey, compared to 4% of the economy as a whole.

Faced with a shortage of staff, Frieda cut the opening days of her restaurants from seven to five.

Eliminated double shifts for his cooks.

But labor costs have risen 10%, forcing him to raise prices, and he worries about the long-term future of his restaurants.

There is also human loss.

For many young people from Mediterranean countries, waiting tables in London was a rite of passage for a few years.

“Brexit was an economic disaster, cultural, personal and of all kinds,” says Frieda.

Regrets about Brexit have increased in recent months as the country has plunged into a severe economic crisis.

Polls show that a clear majority of BritsHe now believes that voting to leave was a mistake.

A new report from the British Chambers of Commerce says more than half of its members have problems trading across the Channel.

However, quantify the negative impact of brexit, at a time of multiple crises, can reveal itself complicated.

Some of Britain’s economic problems, such as the stagnation of productivity, predate his decision to leave the bloc.

Others, like the inflation, They affect many countries.

Immigration statistics can paint a misleading picture:

Net immigration to Britain reached a record 504,000 people in the 12 months to June, led by refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, as well as holders of British overseas passports from Hong Kong.

However, as far as EU citizens are concerned, there was a net outflow of 51,000 in the same period, who are usually employed in restaurants.

Britain’s post-Brexit immigration policy has changed the nature and source of new arrivals away from less skilled immigrants from European countries and towards more skilled ones from South Asia and Africa.

“Labor shortages are a feature of the new system,” said Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and public policy at King’s College London.

By opening jobs to Britons in sectors such as hospitality, he said, the government’s aim was to create “higher productivity, wages and more training for UK-based workers”.

But the risk, he said, is that companies hit by a shortage of workers will simply reduce their output and employment.

According to a recent survey by UKHospitality and the British Association of Beers and Pubs, around 40% of restaurants have cut back on hours, while more than a third of restaurants, pubs and hotels may be insolvent or even closed by the start of 2023.

The Christmas holidays had been presented as a year-end redemption for bars and restaurants.

But now they risk being blighted by the cost-of-living crisis, which is discouraging people from eating out, and by the railway strikes, which have led to an avalanche of reservations cancelled For the holidays.

“The end of the year looms at a critical time for restaurants,” says Andy Tighe, director of strategy and policy for the British Association of Breweries and Pubs.

“Train strikes are the icing on the cake.”

Insiders are lobbying the Conservative government to grant more two-year visas to young people from the European Union who come to Britain to work in restaurants.

They also want the process to be less expensive and less bureaucratic.

Catering workers, they argue, are productive, not usually a burden on the NHS and usually go home after a few years.

“They’re usually young and spending their money on the pitch,” says Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, a chain of private clubs that started in London and has spread around the world.

“I really believe there are people who come because they’re experts at certain things.”

The government’s refusal to address the problem, according to Jones, threatens the future of one of Britain’s most thriving industries.

“Want speak people to invest in restaurants and open others,” he said.

The problem is that immigration has become, if possible, an even more sensitive issue in recent months, after the increase in the number of asylum seekers crossing the Channel in small boats.

The prime minister, Rishi Sunakhe is receiving pressure from the right wing of his party to reduce, not increase, the number of immigrants.

Britain is a destination nonethelessor less attractive for its European neighbors.

Some went home after the Brexit vote;

others left during the pandemic and never returned.

Ruth Rogers, owner of the River Cafe, a popular Italian restaurant in Hammersmith, west London, employed Italian waiters on her summer trips to that country.

“Usually when I’m in Italy and I meet a really nice guy, I say, ‘Why don’t you come to London?'” she says.

“I told a guy in Venice last year and he said, ‘I can’t. They don’t want us.'”

While Rogers was able to keep staff at the River Cafe, he said it became much more difficult after Brexit.

He recently had to pay more than £10,000, or about $12,000, for a British visa retain a highly regarded sommelier.

and the problems of River Coffee they pale next to those of other well-known London restaurants.

Celebrity chef Jason Atherton sent shockwaves through the industry last month when he told the London Evening Standard he would have to close many of his restaurants next year if he couldn’t cover 350 vacanciesor about a third of its workforce.

Atherton declined a request for an interview.

Shortage

Frieda’s restaurants – Trullo, in Islington, and Padella, in Borough Market and Shoreditch – have no shortage of patrons.

At Padella, which doesn’t take reservations, queues form to try theirs cutters with slow-cooked tomato sauce or pappardelle with eight-hour Dexter veal shank ragout.

But with a shortage of workers from the mainland, Frieda was forced to look for them closer to home.

It’s a challenge for education, he says, because young people in Britain are not impregnated of the food and wine culture of the Mediterranean countries.

“They’ve never seen anyone drink a glass of wine, unless they’re actually drinking it,” he laughs.

“They’re coming, but it’s a journey.”

For some restaurateurs, the labor shortage reflects a lack of imagination in their industry.

They say restaurants could hire more women if they offered more flexible hours.

They could also hire older people, for whom working in a restaurant could be a problem attractive activity after retirement.

Jeremy King, a leading London restaurateur, until recently owner of Wolseley, Fischer’s and Delaunay, says British restaurants also need to overcome a cultural bias in the country against jobs like waiting staff.

“For Brits, there seems to be ignominy and stigma in serving people,” said King, who plans to get back to work with a new restaurant in the spring.

“I keep blaming the restaurateurs for not believing in our staff, for not demonstrating that restoration can be a career.”

c.2022 The New York Times Society