Hospitality industry staffing crisis continues

Several Channel Island businesses are being forced to close their doors due to the current staffing crisis.

Businesses have had to close during the week as they do not have enough staff to open.

Some have applied for visas to bring staff into the island.

However with the UK Government giving priority visas to Ukrainian refugees escaping conflict, a backlog of applications is now beginning to put even more pressure on an already fragile industry.

Matthew Jones, who runs a restaurant and hotel in Gorey said: "We've been waiting for over ten weeks now for two peoples visas, one from Kenya, one even from Italy which is on our doorstep and they can't come and work here without a visa."

Another cafe in Jersey has just welcomed three Antiguans to their workforce and say it has eased on the staffing pressure, for now.

Antigua and Barbuda have had a three year agreement with Jersey for experienced staff to come and work during Jersey's summer period.

Khari Shaw, has just moved to the island to start work, he said: " More or less it's pretty much the same, at the end of the day it's customer service, we're both coming from hotels so transitioning to a restaurant it's a bit different.

But even with these agreements in place, some businesses say this is the worst they have ever seen.

Jules Barons, business owner said: "We can't open seven days a week which we normally would do at this time of the year, and if it wasn't for the Antiguan partnership we wouldn't be able to open the six days a week that we are now, I think every business in hospitality is at crisis point, if one person is off sick, we're in trouble."

However, this crisis is not unique to Jersey, with Guernsey experiencing the same problems.

Guernsey businesses are struggling to recruit locally and are now looking towards India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines to help build on staffing numbers.

But, with growing waiting times for visas, this option is unworkable too.

Alan Sillett, from Guernsey's Hospitality Association said: "It can be months and months from the day you say yes we're going to recruit somebody, to actually booking the travel for them to come here, it can be three to five months on occasions."