Qualitaly_124

AUG. SEP. 2021 V the same period last year. This is what the InfoJobs Observatory has put down in black and white, leading to inevitable optimism for the restart and giving new opportunities to those who, because of the pandemic, were unable to work. But, after an initial euphoria, the restaurant and tourism sectors have reported a very different reality, given the difficulty in finding the wide range of professionals within the sector, especially in a delicate period like the summer. TRAINING AND COMMITMENT There are quite a few obstacles for the sector and the causes can be numerous,” says Alfredo Zini, owner of the historic Al Tronco restaurant in Milan. An initial analysis can be made starting with the Hotel management schools, the basis on which professionalism in the restaurant industry is formed: unfortunately, the lockdown and the impossibility of carrying out teaching activities have meant that a series of indispensable experiences such as internships or the workshops themselves have been lost. For a young person, it is not easy to approach a restaurant directly without a little experience and, in the same way, we restaurateurs need to understand whether the person meets the needs of the restaurant”. Entering the world of work is not easy and it seems that the whole ‘selection and acquisition process’, if you can call it that, is at a standstill due to a variety of social, cultural and professional factors. “In addition, it is worth specifying that many people have abandoned this type of work to take other paths: because of the prolonged closures, they have sought occupations that can guarantee a certain economic security”. In addition to the actual commitment required to work in a restaurant, there is also the question of working hours, which, as is well known, involve a series of sacrifices: “In our profession, it’s a well-known fact that the days when others are celebrating are the days when we work the hardest,” he adds, “and the restaurant must be open from mid- morning until late in the evening to tidy up at the end of the service. STATE SUBSIDIES AND UNDECLARED WORK The debate becomes even more heated when the economic issue is addressed, mainly with reference to contracts or their renewal. “For a young graduate with no experience, a monthly pay packet of 40 hours per week is between 800 and 900 euros, plus a series of service items and contributions that are not visible in the pay packet but which benefit the worker. For the company, this translates into around 1,5000 euros. Zini explains. This is a delicate subject that raises a number of considerations linked to Citizenship Income and the Temporary Redundancy Fund itself, subsidies that, in some cases, turn into a sort of mere welfare that inexorably lowers the value of work. Unfortunately, many of these aspects depend on a lack of vision of the future,” comments Alfredo Zini, “Today it is difficult to decide to make investments in an activity that, due to the period we are going through, does not give any certainty of survival: unfortunately, there are many premises that have closed and those newly opened have to deal with several fronts. Faced with this scenario, restaurateurs have organised themselves in various ways, opting for a reshuffle of work and individual jobs, perhaps even from the timetable itself, always starting from the assumption that the period is transitional. From the analysis of the owner of Ristorante Al Tronco in Milan, another very important issue emerges, namely the risk of ‘increasing’ undeclared work: “In order not to lose the various subsidies, some people ask not to be ‘put on the books’. It costs the entrepreneur half as much because he saves on all the social security contributions but, in doing so, he ends up in a completely wrong situation for the whole system. Even the reintroduction of vouchers and other interesting instruments to curb undeclared work have failed. The problem is that we don’t hear of a revision not only