Wages increased, workers are still lacking (INFOGRAPHIC)

By increasing wages in the hospitality industry, the problem of labor shortage at the beginning of the summer season in the tourism metropolis has been alleviated to some extent in recent days.

This is what the president of the Budva Catering Association told "Vijesti". Aleksandar Jovanovic.

According to him, there is still a lack of workers, although the situation has improved a little in recent days.

"After the initial high demands of the workforce when it comes to wages, the situation is slowly normalizing. Wages were significantly increased in the hospitality industry, but not to the extent that they unrealistically set at the beginning of the season. And that is a good circumstance for workers, so that accordingly the labor market is slowly stabilizing compared to the period of a month ago", said Jovanović.

According to him, they do not have information on the exact number of seasonal workers who are missing.

"Deficient professions are still cooks, waiters, hygienists, maids...", said Jovanović.

Asked how much the salaries are in hotels and restaurants in Budva, Jovanović said that it depends on the facility, working hours and volume of work.

"We can say that the wages of waiters are from 500 to 800 euros, for cooks it is from 800 to 2.500 euros, while maids receive from 600 to 800 euros," said Jovanović.

According to earlier estimates, Budva is short of around 3.000 workers during the season.

Jovanović recently told "Vijesta" that the Association has been pointing out the problem of seasonal labor for years, and that changes in the education system are the only correct long-term solution.

"We need to open more courses and enroll more students who are interested in jobs in tourism and through the dual system of education (but real, not fictitious) to prepare staff for the needs of the tourism industry. The economy is interested in helping in that process and employing students after graduating from high school," Jovanović stressed.

The owner of the popular Budva bar in the old town "Mozzart" Luka Vuckovic told "Vijesta" that it is extremely difficult to find a qualified workforce.

"There are not enough professionals with professional qualifications and work experience in Montenegro. Considering the current situation, we will have to look for labor force from abroad. My colleagues already started bringing workers from Mexico, Cuba, Indonesia a couple of years ago and they are extremely satisfied. They can mostly do work in the kitchen because they don't know our language. Our restaurant is open all year round and we employ 17 permanent workers. We have a base of workers who have been working for over ten years. We've had regular seasonals for years. "Budva certainly needs more than 1.000 workers in the catering industry and the same number in the hotel industry," said Vučković.

And while a lot of workers who worked on the Montenegrin coast due to high wages found employment in Croatia this year due to significantly higher wages, the problem of labor shortage is still noticeable among neighbors.

As reported by index.hr, the lack of workers in the service, primarily tourism and hospitality industries has been mentioned for years, and is especially noticeable in Dubrovnik. Completing the season with insufficient workforce is an almost impossible mission, and some owners of catering facilities in Dubrovnik have put some of their services on hold. Some of them would expand their offer in the form of food or would additionally enrich the existing menus, as this Croatian media writes, but it is simply difficult for them to find workers, so their services are 'on hold'. Some offer their existing workers conditions to work longer or even double shifts for good earnings.