An ongoing labor shortage in hotels and restaurants is due to low wages rather than imbalanced supply and demand, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The ministry made the remarks after Grand Hyatt Taipei (台北君悅大飯店) general manager Will Chen (陳慶隆) on Wednesday told reporters that the five-star facility is looking at a rapid recovery in business next year.
However, the lack of staff is slowing the pace, he said.
Photo courtesy of Caesar Park Hotels and Resorts
Formosa International Hotels Group (晶華酒店集團) chairman Steve Pan (潘思亮) earlier said its flagship property, the Regent Taipei (台北晶華酒店), had to turn down reservations for thousands of banquet tables due to understaffing.
About 58 hotels have about 380 vacant positions, but only 37.4 percent meet wage expectations, the ministry said, adding that there is ample room for improvement if companies want to resolve the situation.
The ministry said it had launched rounds of matching campaigns, and concluded that wage expectation gaps account for the understaffing issues in the hospitality sector.
Hotels have pressed the government to ease regulations regarding hiring migrant workers, as it is currently limited to the manufacturing, construction, agriculture and fishing sectors, as well as caretaker positions.
The service sector comprises 60 percent of employment in Taiwan, and there are many potential workers available locally to work at hotels and restaurants, the ministry said.
Hospitality operators should lower their qualification requirements or raise compensation to attract applicants to vacancies, it said.
Dependence on low-paid migrant workers is not healthy for the industry or society, it added.
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