Restaurants in France need 130,000 new employees, and both owners and unions are asking the government to issue work permits to undocumented immigrants so they can take the jobs.
The newspaper Le Parisien reported that “Faced with a dearth of workers, restaurant and hotel owners have asked the government to facilitate the delivery of work permits for undocumented foreigners. Officials of the union Umih told the paper that “Nowadays, people seem to think that if you’re not good at school, you’ll end up working in hotels and restaurants.”
“Restaurants and hotel owners are in the starting blocks. We are now waiting for the government to give these people their work permits. We’ll provide the training and the work,” Didier Chenet, president of the GNI restaurant and hotel union told le Parisien.
Under current rules, only refugees can be granted work permits; those seeking refugee status can also get permits, but must wait 9 moths before starting work. The restaurants and unions hope the government will waive the wait.
