For more than 100 years, the Landgasthof Heerlein in Bamberg has been a family business, managed a quarter of the time by Helmuth Heerlein. Before spring 2020, the tavern was closed one day a week and private parties often took place even on these days. Two and a half years later, the situation is completely different: “During the pandemic, my most reliable waitress and the best cook migrated to other industries,” says Heerlein. His attempts to find a replacement came to nothing.
According to the German Economic Institute, three out of four positions in the catering industry are currently vacant in the Bamberg district. Heerlein teaches a few students who earn extra income by working as waiters and helping out in the kitchen. But he couldn’t hold bigger celebrations in this line-up. Out of necessity, the landlord shortened the opening hours, introduced two days off instead of one, and he only offers hot meals in the evenings. The menu is also only available in a slimmed-down version. “There was no way around it. I’m sinking into work,” says Heerlein. It stinged him when he had to turn down the celebrations of families who had come to his inn for years for baptisms, funerals and everything in between. Is there anything good about the situation? “As long as there is enough money, yes. Then I can at least move further away from burnout with less work,” he says.
The mini-jobbers in particular have migrated
Heerlein is not an isolated case, everywhere in Bavaria hotel guests report cold kitchens and limited breakfast times, tavern visitors are faced with closed doors. According to the state statistical office, 5,000 permanent positions were vacant in August, in the middle of the high season. That’s 15 percent less than before Corona in May 2019. That sounds irritatingly little. The bigger problem is apparently the lack of mini-jobbers. The big emigration was mainly among them, says Thomas Geppert, state manager of the Bavarian Hotel and Restaurant Association (Dehoga). Landlords and hoteliers could not have saved them with short-time work during the lockdowns. And where have these people gone? To where the need was significantly greater. Geppert names test and vaccination centers, health authorities, call centers, delivery services, retail and Deutsche Bahn.
While many innkeepers, like Heerlein, are reducing their opening hours, others are arguing about whether it’s still worth turning on the stove for a few days. “I don’t like it anymore,” says Robert Leitsch dryly. In November, after 27 years, he closes the Schmankerlhof Oberwirt in the district of Erding. “In recent years, many in the gastro have noticed that they can earn more money elsewhere with easier work,” says the landlord.
It is a vicious circle: The few staff that were left after the pandemic are working themselves up completely. At peak times there is no time to go to the toilet or have a sip of water. Leitsch stands at the stove for up to 18 hours a day and takes on tasks that employees would otherwise do. Shortening the opening times even further is not a solution: “I can’t cover my fixed costs if I only open two or three days a week.”
It is particularly painful that the demand is there: “The tavern is full every day. I just can’t accept all the reservations anymore.” Leitsch promises a gloomy forecast for the industry: “Respect to my gastronomy colleagues who are still holding out. The personnel situation will get worse in the next few years.”
More flexible working hours could help
Thomas Geppert does not want to see things quite so bleakly: Things are looking up again. He cites another number: This August there were 25 percent more permanent staff in hotels and restaurants than in mid-May 2021. Still. At that time, catering establishments were allowed to open again, at least outside. Only in April 2022 were all access rules lifted.
In order to get the problem of skilled workers under control, something has to change fundamentally for the Dehoga managing director. All sectors have the problem, “we need six times more staff just for the same turnover as in retail.” Sure, Dehoga also runs campaigns to appeal to young people, but “we have to go to high schools.” A “Day of Crafts” was recently held there for the first time to show new perspectives, because most high school graduates are still aspiring to colleges and universities. Geppert wishes for a gastronomy day. And more flexible working hours. Gastronomy and the hotel industry needed the weekly working hours instead of the daily maximum hours. “A wedding isn’t over after eight hours, some would rather continue working and then have two or three days off,” says Geppert. He sees state politics as having a duty to implement these wishes in Berlin.
The demands and needs are well known in the Ministry of Economic Affairs: “Bavaria will continue to work with the federal government to ease the framework conditions,” says a spokesman. In addition to weekly working hours, this also included modern immigration law. Foreign seasonal workers should be able to be employed more easily and workers’ housing should be made available tax-free. But the industry can only turn other important screws itself: A good image depends on a good working environment. Gastronomy and hotels would have to offer, among other things, “family-friendly working hours” and “appropriate remuneration”.