Wednesday, 1 August 2018
Labour Shortage in Trinidad
Labour Shortage in Trinidad
In Trinidad, hoteliers are complaining that they have unable to find qualified personnel to work in their companies.
Apparenly they are looking to bring in Phillipinos.
Owner of the Arnos Vale Hotel, Bill Bronte, said in a December 2007 Business Guardian article that several of Tobago’s hotels are in need of service staff: waiters, waitresses, housekeepers and maintenance workers.
The challenge is not only to find people willing to work, but also those who understand the meaning of service.
“We pay from $12 to $17 an hour. Maintenance staff and barmen earn $17 an hour.”
Last month, he recruited an accountant from a Trinidad-based pharmaceutical company to join his hotel staff.
According to Bronte, the Government’s billion-dollar Community Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (Cepep) is to the island’s tourism sector’s detriment.
“Cepep has absorbed most of the labour you can find. Most expensive cost in running a hotel daily is labour. Four years ago, we paid a worker $8 an hour. It’s almost double today.
“You are always doing maintenance. Where we got a brick a few years ago for $2, it’s now $8.”
The question I have, is why this is not common knowledge in Jamaica, were we have massive unemployment?
