Waiter in Mallorca

Will there be a shortage of waiters at Easter? | Cris

Andrew EdePalma06/02/2025 19:20
TW
4

It isn't anything new. Mallorca's restaurants have been complaining about staff shortages and difficulties with recruitment since the pandemic. They have suggested the problems in fact pre-date Covid, but the past three years have posed the greatest challenges.

As Alfonso Robledo, president of the Balearic Restaurants Federation, has said in the past: "After the pandemic there was a change in the mentality of employees. Now they prefer to live rather than to work."

Related news
Payment at a till at a Mallorca cafe

Customer self-payment coming to Mallorca's restaurants

More related news

Easter is still more than two months away, but the restaurants already reckon they will have staffing problems. "The Spanish don't want to be waiters," says Robledo. "Initially the Mallorcans didn't want to be waiters, so we hired people from the mainland, especially Andalusians. However, for a few years now they don't want to come to work on the islands either. We are now complementing our staff thanks mainly to the Argentines and Colombians."

He cites a familiar reason for not being able to attract workers from the mainland - the high cost of housing and the fact that rents take up large parts of people's salaries. Hiring is especially complex when there are split shifts, "which are essential for the operation of many bars and restaurants."

Despite the fact that there are still people unemployed, he points out that employers in the vast majority of sectors are experiencing problems finding workers. He believes there should be less bureaucracy, but accepts there are people who do not want temporary contracts for fear of losing benefits.