[Food] Simple question. Why no catering staff?

Official Old Man · Aug 29, 2021

I know, we ask it every season for the first few games and blame the students.
But with a fan base of 10,000's why cant we put out a simple plea.
Can you serve behind the counter for 6 hours for £60? Free food at the end.
If training is needed then 8 hours for £80. Heck, the money they take they could afford £100 per shift.
How many items are there on the menu and how many buttons need pressing?
Has anyone on here seen an advert for staff?

jonny.rainbow · Aug 29, 2021

I remember the good times said:
I know, we ask it every season for the first few games and blame the students.
But with a fan base of 10,000's why cant we put out a simple plea.
Can you serve behind the counter for 6 hours for £60? Free food at the end.
If training is needed then 8 hours for £80. Heck, the money they take they could afford £100 per shift.
How many items are there on the menu and how many buttons need pressing?
Has anyone on here seen an advert for staff?

Guinness Boy · Aug 29, 2021

There's a nationwide shortage of people in the hospitality industry. Many of those let go or furloughed by Sodexo haven't been able to be re-recruited. And (sorry, no Bear Pit intended here, but it's true) there is no immediate pool of foreign labour that can come in and replace them either (indeed many who have left hospitality are EU citizens who left the UK at the start of the pandemic or just after Brexit).

That said, I'm sure when the students are back at Uni many will need a part time job that's local to tide themselves over so it should get better.

The club's pre-match brief said as much by the way. The closed concessions weren't a surprise to me. I queued once and "double parked" :shrug:

Hugo Rune · Aug 29, 2021

There are profound shortages in hospitality across the country. An industry where many jobseekers have been too proud to work in, we had an awful lot of foreign workers a few years ago.

It’s all change now. You don’t have to look much further than Brexit-Covid to find your answers. This industry relied on a European work force, the Government had a scheme to resettle these sort of folk back to Europe by paying them up to £3,000 each. A lot went home at the beginning of the pandemic and now can’t or won’t return for various reasons.

Also Students have not enrolled at the Universities yet but I’d be surprised if many were looking for work at the Amex.

Get used to the crippling queues.

Neville's Breakfast · Aug 29, 2021

Hugo Rune said:
There are profound shortages in hospitality across the country. An industry where many jobseekers have been too proud to work in, we had an awful lot of foreign workers a few years ago.

It’s all change now. You don’t have to look much further than Brexit-Covid to find your answers. This industry relied on a European work force, the Government had a scheme to resettle these sort of folk back to Europe by paying them up to £3,000 each. A lot went home at the beginning of the pandemic and now can’t or won’t return for various reasons.

Also Students have not enrolled at the Universities yet but I’d be surprised if many were looking for work at the Amex.

Get used to the crippling queues.

Yes, exploiting cheap foreign workers was the chosen solution to enable a low wage economy. Seems it is no longer an option. Good.

Blue3 · Aug 29, 2021

That’s Brexit for you

Guinness Boy · Aug 29, 2021

Neville's Breakfast said:
Yes, exploiting cheap foreign workers was the chosen solution to enable a low wage economy. Seems it is no longer an option. Good.

Be sure to let Tony and Paul know that when their costs rise and revenue drops.

PILTDOWN MAN · Aug 29, 2021

Simple answer, no students

southstandandy · Aug 29, 2021

Hugo Rune said:
There are profound shortages in hospitality across the country. An industry where many jobseekers have been too proud to work in, we had an awful lot of foreign workers a few years ago.

It’s all change now. You don’t have to look much further than Brexit-Covid to find your answers. This industry relied on a European work force, the Government had a scheme to resettle these sort of folk back to Europe by paying them up to £3,000 each. A lot went home at the beginning of the pandemic and now can’t or won’t return for various reasons.

Also Students have not enrolled at the Universities yet but I’d be surprised if many were looking for work at the Amex.

Get used to the crippling queues.

Very true - this is also reflected in the care industry (as just one other example) where we relied too much on foreign staff who were happy to work for UK minimum wage. Sadly very few British nationals want to work in hospitality, care, or shop work. The easy answer is to increase wages which sounds great but then there will always be a knock on effect to likely increases in prices for those services and then we all moan when we have to pay more for the like. No real simple solution.

From the Albion's perspective I suspect as others have said when the students return there will be plenty willing to support their studies (as I did when I was a student working 30 hours a week to support my course costs). A couple I know have already applied to work at the club when they are back in 2 weeks time, so hopefully things will start to improve.

Napper · Aug 29, 2021

Maybe they need to pay more to get the kiosks full of staff .

Thought Watford was bad but yesterday was biggest shit show since we moved to the Amex .

Needs sorting out as not only are they probably losing sales but it’s pissing fans off too .

Eeyore · Aug 29, 2021

Neville's Breakfast said:
Yes, exploiting cheap foreign workers was the chosen solution to enable a low wage economy. Seems it is no longer an option. Good.

They were paid the same minimum wage as everyone else. It's still the same. It's unlikely to change beyond usual rises. I personally think it will get worse over time.

Publius Ovidius · Aug 29, 2021

Brexit innit

southstandandy · Aug 29, 2021

Brighton Lines said:
They were paid the same minimum wage as everyone else. It's still the same. It's unlikely to change beyond usual rises. I personally think it will get worse over time.

Also European wages have risen considerably in recent years making it less attractive for foreigners to come to the UK to work. Good article I recently read shows the increases in the last 20 years across the world and much of Europe. It's not hard to see that the UK is not as an attractive place to work anymore :

Country Rise in average salary since 2000 :
Latvia 147.91%
Lithuania 143.65%
Estonia 137.91%
Czech Republic 73.91%
Slovak Republic 65.51%
Hungary 55.93%
Poland 52.94%
Chile 49.99%
Korea 44.41%
Norway 43.64%
Slovenia 41.48%
Sweden 35.41%
Ireland 34.51%
New Zealand 33.94%
Iceland 33.27%
Denmark 25.51%
France 21.43%
United States 20.49%
Canada 20.42%
United Kingdom 20.37%
Finland 19.12%
Germany 18.38%
Australia 17.86%
Luxembourg 16.68%
Switzerland 15.07%
Austria 11.60%
Israel 10.23%
Netherlands 9.91%
Belgium 8.82%
Mexico 5.09%
Italy 3.11%
Spain 2.17%
Japan 1.49%
Greece -2.48%
Portugal -3.20%

Hazwaz · Aug 29, 2021

They were 170 staff sort yesterday,can’t even get agency staff who cost a lot more.Remember there are other events like the T20 at Canterbury thé night before where some Amex staff worked and got home at 2.30 in the morning and were back at the Amex for 11.00 am .Please be patient with the staff they are trying their best from top to bottom

Silverhatch · Aug 29, 2021

PILTDOWN MAN said:
Simple answer, no students

No, Pandemic/Furlough/Brexit. Had two hotel managers confirm this in the last 2 weeks. Biggest issue being cleaning which was historically non-British workforce.

JC Footy Genius · Aug 29, 2021

Neville's Breakfast said:
Yes, exploiting cheap foreign workers was the chosen solution to enable a low wage economy. Seems it is no longer an option. Good.

Indeed, with a never ending supply of cheap labour numerous employers knew they only ever had to pay the legal minimum. Now we are seeing significant wage rises across quite a few sectors which must come as quite a shock to all those who claimed EU membership had little or no impact on wages especially at the lower end ..

https://www.businessinsider.com/lab...errer=https://www.google.com&amp_tf=From %1$s

Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk

PILTDOWN MAN · Aug 29, 2021

Silverhatch said:
No, Pandemic/Furlough/Brexit. Had two hotel managers confirm this in the last 2 weeks. Biggest issue being cleaning which was historically non-British workforce.

I can understand that as I also work in the industry but at Brighton they rely on the students and have done since we moved to the Amex. The other stuff exacerbates it.

halbpro · Aug 29, 2021

As others have said, big shortages everywhere in hospitality. Students may help at the Amex, but there’s a much bigger gap to fill than previous seasons.

Looking at it yesterday, Sodexo pay £8.30ish-10 an hour. Suspect that may move upwards if students don’t plug all the gaps.

Bozza · Aug 29, 2021

I'm not sure working in a poorly-ventilated football concourse, where you are going to have a lot of people who can't be arsed to wear a mask, talking loudly in your direction is a particularly attractive proposition right now.

Bob! · Aug 29, 2021

Guinness Boy said:
Be sure to let Tony and Paul know that when their costs rise and revenue drops.

The revenue will have already dropped from people not using the outlets.

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[Food] Simple question. Why no catering staff?

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