Work permits double to aid staffing levels

The number of work permits granted to non-EU hospitality workers has more than doubled in the past year, with the biggest leap of all in permits for chefs.

Nearly 6,000 work permits for skilled hotel and catering vacancies were approved during the year ended 31 March, compared with 2,323 for the previous 12 months.

Work permits for chefs totalled 3,857, compared with just 1,064 in the previous year. The number of head chefs granted permits was much smaller, however, rising from 171 to 401.

Only 80 work permits for front of house staff were granted, compared with 32 previously. Front of house applicants must have had several years' managerial experience.

A Home Office spokeswoman said the increase was due to a relaxation of certain criteria to allow the hospitality sector to recruit for jobs which could not be filled by the resident workforce.

Despite the rise, work permit holders fill a tiny fraction of nearly two million hospitality jobs, and there remains a real difficulty in filling low-skilled positions. More than half of all JobCentre vacancies advertised during February, March and April 2001 were unfilled, according to the Hospitality Training Foundation. The Government is addressing recruitment difficulties in ongoing discussions with the industry.

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 30 May - 5 June 2002