French Restaurants Turn to Moroccan Workers Amid Labor Shortage

Pascal Beaudouin is regaining hope. He is the owner of Alexia, in La Souterraine (Creuse), a restaurant that, like many others in the department, suffered from the severe lack of staff in the kitchen and in the dining room, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In Creuse, 50 positions were to be filled in early November. This year, the restaurateur was able to hire, through an outside company - a recruitment agency - two cooks from Morocco. He also has staff in the dining room. This allows him to no longer operate at a low regime. In 2022, he closed his restaurant on Saturday noon and all day Sunday. Now the establishment reopens on Saturday.

"Last year, there was a loss of turnover and customer satisfaction, it was very complicated. I tried to recruit through ads, but nothing [...] Today, I finally have a complete team. Compared to 2022, I record a 74% increase in my turnover, just in catering. It’s pure happiness," enthuses Pascal Beaudouin with franceinfo. His new employees are happy to live this new experience. Abdelaziz Hmimid, has been training in French cuisine for several months and his passion is obvious. "I was in post in Morocco, but I am passionate about French cuisine. And that’s my dream," he explains.

His second has even completely adopted France. While they each have the right to return home for a month in December-January, Zouhair Mezry, prefers to stay on the job: "I came here to improve myself, here it’s good for me, just the quality of life. There is a labor shortage and the working conditions are good, we don’t have any problems."

According to Pascal Beaudouin, the survival of struggling Creuse restaurants would come from the fact of giving more benefits to its employees and hiring foreigners. "Today, we have to bring more comfort to the employee since Covid-19, for example, I will never open my restaurant on Sundays again," he assures.