Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Economy – in the Senedd at 1:55 pm on 13 July 2022.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Vaughan Gething Vaughan Gething Labour 1:55, 13 July 2022

Well, I think it's actually about working alongside the sector to try to design it in exactly the same way we have done with the retail sector, where we've actually got a strategy. That may not be what they want to do, but to understand what they're asking and to be honest with them about what we can do together with them. As I say, we've been promoting careers—not just seasonal work, but careers—in hospitality, together with the sector, and, you're right, there is an impression that the work isn't as well remunerated as it could be, and there is a challenge around work-life balance. I've got a brother who is a chef. I have always been very happy to eat his food, but, in the time that I've worked in and around the sector, there is a challenge about that balance. That's been accelerated again by the pandemic, and it's one of the reasons why there has been a challenge recruiting into it. People have thought again about what they want. Most of us want to be able to go out and enjoy the hospitality sector as customers, but we actually need to have people in the sector working to a high standard for us to be able to enjoy. And part of the message, I think, here is about all of us and our constituents actually looking at people who work in that sector not as people who should be having anything thrown at them, verbally or otherwise, when at work, but actually to show some kindness. The whole world is struggling with staff shortages, so we should be kind and decent to the people who have shown up and are working so that we can actually enjoy a significant part of our life too. But I'm more than happy to commit again, not just in the meetings I've had, but to work with the sector and my officials to look at the challenges over wages, what the message is from the sector, the challenge over work-life balance, the points about certainty and what we can do to have a thriving hospitality sector, because, as I say, it underpins a range of other sectors within the wider economy.