Bread and confectionery producers do not hire employees from India / Association: There is no guarantee, we will increase wages

2023-12-26 09:08:03, Sociale CNA

Bread and confectionery producers do not hire employees from India /

The lack of workers, one of the most acute problems for many sectors of the economy, has also significantly affected the producers of bread, sweets and pastries.

The gap created in human resources by this sector was also expected to be solved by hiring foreigners from India and the Philippines, where earlier the bread producers held meetings with recruitment companies from Dubai.

The Chairman of the Association of Bread, Pastry and Pastry Producers, Gëzim Peshkopia, told Monitor that local companies have withdrawn from the decision to hire foreigners. The reasons for not accepting them, according to him, are the high cost of wages and accommodation and the uncertainty of providing qualified employees.

"The cost of hiring foreign employees was high, exceeding 1,000 euros per month (800 euros salary + 300 euros accommodation, food. Better to increase the salaries of the local workforce than to keep foreign employees for whom the qualification of appropriate for dough processing and cake preparation. We will continue with the salary increase policy for 2024 as well.

Throughout the year 2023, the salaries of employees for this sector have increased 2 to 3 times. There are no more employees with a salary of 40,000 lek per month. The salary level for an average specialist ranges from 60,000 to 70,000 ALL per month. For the senior specialist, the salary reaches up to 150,000 ALL per month. While the salary of sanitary workers is 55,000 to 65,000 ALL per month."

Does the pastry and confectionery industry bear these additional costs?

The bishopric says that for the implementation of this primary decision-making, the balance will continue to be preserved in order not to increase the price of bread. According to him, the costs of the wage increase have been amortized by the decrease in the profits of businesses, but also by the increase in prices for some types of products, without affecting the price of mass bread.

The President of the Association of Bread, Pastry and Pastry Producers claims that there is currently a stagnation of the emigration of the population, despite the positive trend, the demand for new employees, especially in the service sector, such as sales or sanitation, remains high.

"We don't expect the crisis to continue next year, like this year's for employees, since the departure has been stopped. There are many families who have been emigrating for years and are returning. So it is about individuals with skills that are being rehabilitated in the country".

According to the data of the association, 8,000 to 10,000 bakeries and pastry shops operate in the country, where each of them is suffering from a lack of labor force. Labor shortages also increased costs for bread producers. The increase in wages made the situation difficult for some bakeries, which increased the prices of mass bread by 10 to 20 Lek./ Monitor.al