2024-03-22 14:26:11
The number of Filipino workers employed in hotels and seasonal businesses on the island has increased fivefold in just two months.
According to reliable information from the “democratic”, since January when the first 100 recruitments were made until today, 500 people from the Philippines have arrived in Rhodes in order to fill vacant jobs, while their number will increase until the full development of the tourist season.
Apart from the hotel units of Rhodes that launched the procedures for the absorption of workers from third countries using the relevant legislation in order to deal with the major issue of vacancies in tourism, the catering businesses of the island decided to follow the same process. It should be noted that in order to cover the vacant positions, procedures have been launched for the introduction of other workers from the specific country in the hotel industry, mainly in the cleaning and service sector but also in auxiliary specialties.
In total in the South Aegean Region, employers were asked to fill more than 5,500 vacancies with third country workers. The Philippines, through the interstate agreements, comes first this year in preference to employers to fill vacancies, followed by Pakistan and Egypt.
Labor from third countries is a one-way street for Rhodes as well, since despite efforts to meet the needs with local labor and Greek workers from other regions of the country, this is impossible to happen.
And this year, according to the calculations so far, the season started with more than 2,500 vacancies. Within the next few weeks, workers from third countries will arrive in Rhodes, gradually and organized through the prescribed legal procedures, who will cover a large part of the workforce needs. The increase in the number of beds and the operation of new hotel units again this year exacerbates the problem which has remained unsolved since the Covid period and is now a global phenomenon that shakes tourism.
Most vacancies are found in the specialties of maids, waiters and assistant waiters, receptionists, waiters, cooks and assistant cooks, maintainers and support staff, while a big problem is also found in filling administrative staff positions that cannot be filled by third countries for this reason. an overdrive is being recorded for “sign-ups” with tempting offer packages in that sector. According to the report of the “Democratic”, about 2,000 to 2,500 jobs, mainly in hotel units, remained vacant in 2023, with the result that there is no scope for a day off for the workers who barely coped with the demands coming from the very difficult season of 2022 where the vacancies reached up to 5,000! The grueling work schedules and overtime have again this year led many workers to overwork and sick leave since most of them have been working non-stop since May at summer rates and without being able to take a single day off, in almost all specialties. What is certain is that the staff, exhausted from previous years, will not be able to work at the same pace this year. In addition, the new hotel units that will operate this year on the island will further aggravate the already unmanageable problem. The 2,000 workers who came last year following the actions of the Labor Center and the Hotel Association in northern Greece, solved only a part of the problem. But the vacancies in the positions of cooks, waiters, lancers, waiters, lifeguards and auxiliary staff specialties were not covered in their entirety, causing a malfunction in the businesses.
The lack of personnel at the peak of the season had begun to be seen even in the last pre-pandemic years, but it was exacerbated during the two-year period of the implementation of restrictive measures especially on the islands. In the two years of the pandemic, many hotel workers changed their job as many units either did not open or were inactive during this time, while those who were employed due to the many vacancies worked in difficult conditions as they shouldered a huge amount of work.
To these data were added, among other things, the gaps from the retirement of executives, the increase in beds and economic immigrants who did not return to Rhodes or left the island, during the pandemic period. As the “democratiki” wrote, around 100 workers were employed in 2023 in hotels mainly in southern Rhodes, mainly coming from the Philippines, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh – in the majority of them men – who filled vacant positions in catering and cleanliness. Those coming from third countries, as permitted by the relevant legislation, are mainly employed as waiters, lanzers, gardeners filling auxiliary staff positions.
The same happened with the positions filled in hotels and catering businesses – mainly in lanza – by Gypsy permanent residents of Rhodes, which amounted to about 100 people.