Four waiters and three cooks are missing at L’Escale, one of the largest trucking companies in Europe located near Châteauroux (Indre), to be able to receive customers this summer. Their leader, Dominique Thomas, has tried everything to find this missing staff, to no avail. Result: the boss is forced to close the doors of his establishment from August 7 to 20.
Faced with this situation, he points out the limitations of the profession that young workers, in particular, would no longer accept. “We tried everything, we tried to recruit, we had interviews with all the organizations that were supposed to provide us with staff,” he testifies.
“It’s not that they don’t want to work, it’s that they don’t accept the limitations of the position,” he explains before detailing: “you have to return to work from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and finish work from 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.
The chefs at l’Escale receive 2,000 euros net per month. As for the divers, they receive a monthly salary of 1800 euros.
Aid differentiated according to the type of restaurant
Dominique Thomas, who is not opposed to increasing the remuneration of its employees, however underlines the difficulty of generating significant margins to finance these increases. “It’s homemade, it’s crafts with fresh products,” she argues, in opposition to restaurants that serve ready-cooked meals.
So much so that, according to him, the government should only reserve its “helping hands” – such as the reduction of VAT to 5.5% in the past – for establishments that process products.
Because, if nothing is done for restaurants like l’Escale, the boss fears a polarization of the restaurant offer with, on the one hand, “very high-end catering with an average ticket of 40-50 euros”, and on the other, a “low-end” offer.
Source: BFM TV
