Mandatory job notification in the hospitality industry: excessive effort and hardly any benefit

The implementation of the job notification requirement - a measure in connection with the implementation of the mass immigration initiative, which aims to give priority to Swiss nationals for vacant positions - is causing criticism, particularly in the hospitality industry, as a recent survey by the industry association GastroSuisse shows. The respondents criticize the high costs for companies as well as the quality of the dossiers sent by the RAV. In addition, the survey revealed that the RAVs do not adhere to the legally prescribed deadlines. The hospitality industry, as a personnel-intensive sector with more than 200,000 employees, is particularly dependent on a practicable implementation of the job notification requirement. According to the survey, 26.4 % of the companies surveyed have already reported at least one job to the RAV in just two and a half months.

Deficiencies are obvious

The experiences of GastroSuisse members are mixed: 57.8 % are moderately to not at all satisfied with the services of the RAV. They criticize the great effort and the low success rate. The dossiers they receive often do not match the job profile. Well over half of the dossiers sent by the REOs (54.8 %) were not suitable. The REOs were able to fill just one in 7 to 8 reported vacancies (13.7 %). The quality of the dossiers could be improved by refining the occupational nomenclature. The occupation type "kitchen staff", for example, incorrectly includes skilled and unskilled personnel. "There is a serious shortage of skilled cooks. Yet vacancies must be reported. Where are all the unemployed cooks if the RAV can't deliver suitable dossiers either?" wonders Casimir Platzer, president of GastroSuisse and hotelier in Kandersteg.

Waiting times far too long

Also unsatisfactory are the sometimes very long waiting times in the recruitment process. Only one company received immediate confirmation of receipt from the RAV (0.6 %). But this is exactly what GastroSuisse demands in order to shorten waiting times. Because only at this point does the five-day blocking period begin to run, during which employers are not allowed to advertise the position publicly. The duration between confirmation of receipt and delivery of the dossiers is also clearly too long: 43.4 % of the companies had to wait 4 days or longer, thus exceeding the legal time limit of 3 days. Overall, one third of the surveyed establishments (33.3 %) that finally received a dossier had to wait 8 days or longer from the time of job notification. For 8.3 %, it took even longer than 14 days. The hospitality industry has comparatively high fluctuations in staffing levels that need to be compensated for quickly. The long waiting times lead to an overload of the employed staff and massively complicate business management.

Source: GastroSuisse
Read more about the job notification requirement and initial experiences with it in this ORGANISATOR article.