WILLEMSTAD - Now that tourism is picking up, there is more work in the hospitality industry, but there is a shortage of staff. Especially finding trained cooks is a problem. There are too few of these people with expertise on the island to meet the need and many restaurants are looking abroad.
The Curaçao Restaurant Association (CRA) therefore believes that the licensing policy should be relaxed. Now it takes a lot of time and effort to obtain a permit for personnel from abroad. According to the CRA, trained cooks must, among other things, be placed in an exceptional position and be able to obtain a work permit at short notice. But something will also have to be arranged for the shortage of managers and serving staff.
The restaurant organization is now in talks with the Ministry of Social Development, Labor and Welfare (SOAW) to find a solution to this personnel problem. For this, among other things, outdated legislation, which prescribes a submission period of 5 weeks, will have to be adjusted. The CRA understands that a change in the law takes time, but also believes that exceptional rules should be made in the short term.
Given the importance of the sector for tourism and providing a good service, it is now necessary to quickly come up with a solution. In a discussion with the ministry, options were examined to speed up the procedure. SOAW is currently developing an application that will digitize and optimize the entire process, making it much faster. The CRA has offered to provide input where necessary to also facilitate the submission side of the application process.
CRA strives to improve the restaurant industry on the island and this includes appropriate personnel legislation. In this case, it is important to act quickly to maintain the level of the sector with sufficient trained personnel. CRA therefore advocates an early solution so that the sector can meet expectations, under pressure from the growing number of tourists.