Can foreign workers fix Romania's labor shortage? | Focus on Europe 

As a Romanian, I can answer the question very easily. The owners of these hotels pay next to nothing, that's why they can't attract Romanian workers. Because the workers are not treated fairly, they get cheated with money, underpaid, and overworked, while the owner practices higher rates for rooms and food than in Spain or France. This is nothing new, the owners were exploiting employees in this industry for tens of years, the only difference is that the Romanian employees finally woke up and saw that there are better opportunities for them than being slaves to a hotel owner in Constanta.

"I don't know what would convince a Romanian worker in France to come back." More money.

I'm really happy that Romanians are stepping up and saying no to underpaid jobs. Romania is a part of the Eu, with a cost of living similar to Western countries. As of that, Romanians should ask for a payment that allows living", not just existing.

As a Romanian, I feel sick to see these business owners saying that Romanians don't want to work for them and see that they bring foreigners on a low salary and take advantage of them. It breaks my heart and angers me so much to hear that as a foreigner, he is forced to stay with so many other people in the same room. If I were in their place, I would use Romania as a bridge to get something better, never settle for less, guys!

We have same problem in Lithuania - no one wants to do summer job for 800€ when they can earn 3000€ in Denmark. Also we see employers driving Porsche and their daughters Range Rovers. Work for 800€? Thanks, no!

those seaside hotel owners are notoriously underpay their employees and make them work long hours. nobody in his right mind would want to work for them

Big hug to Romania from Poland. Gotta visit you one day.

Treat your employees fairly and they will love and loyal to you. A business will not grow without employees.

I am from Romania. I worked 12 years in construction and other areas. My payment was about 500€ while Polish people 1200€, Norway workers 2300€ for the same job. Even from India, Africa got 600€, and hotel accommodations, 3 meals a day free transport etc. For Romanian 500€ and nothing more. I left the country in 2016 and I don't plan to return.

Can't believe I would ever see the day when Romania needs more workers.

Drive down wages forever until the world is reduced to poverty.

500 euro for 7day shift😅... And that old guy doesn't know why he cand find workers? Ridiculous

When they say foreign workers, they mean Africans and poor Asians. But there are plenty of workers... in the EU. This is not a labor issue, it is a wage issue. Romania is part of a labor market of 450 million people, and it also has Ukraine, the Western Balkans and the R of Moldova nearby. The problem is that labor importers are catering to people who can't or won't pay the required wages to clear the market and get labor. Example: I live in Bucharest. The tourist trap restaurants in the center have more and more Sri Lankan and other staff, but my perfectly adequate neighborhood restaurants near the center have Romanian staff who are just as competent. How can a hugely busy and profitable restaurant not find workers but my more affordable neighborhood one can and why doesn't that restaurant steal the workers from this one, by offering the higher wages it can definitely afford? The answer is cost minimization and the government aids them in this. It is all a con. And it is not just the hospitality industry. All areas complaining of lack of workers are suffering from low capital investment into automation, from low efficiency or from deceptive cost minimization presented as labor shortage. I don't fault these companies, but I fault the government for not following the interest of Romanian workers, who need labor scarcity to increase their bargaining power and capital investment to increase productivity.

Romania is a wonderful country. As a Belgian citizen I visited it for the first time in 1997. A lot has changed since the '90 and for the better. Also the average salaries have gone up but not at the same rate as the living costs and not like in other eastern European countries. I do not understand why. It is simple, make the salaries at the same rate versus the living cost like it is in other European countries and people will not move around in Europe that much anymore because why should they? This change is long overdue and the discrepancies should be fix as soon as possible.

NO NO, don´t bring foreign workers unless they are other Pure Europeans. That is how it started in France "we need more workers, France is growing". NO NO. Only from your own culture: other Pure Europeans, like Polish, Hungarians, Greek, etc etc. I am from Argentina, and we have followed the same policies and we are an example of a United country with One culture.

We recently visited Bucharest and this was very noticeable, you see a lot of workers from Asia doing the deliveries or cleaning the rooms of apartments.

There is no labor shortage anywhere. There is a shortage of decent business owners that got this wild idea of capitalism and greed grandfathered in there heads. Look at the wealth gap not in the rich and poor, but the ladder of earned wages from top to bottom. It's astounding..

Unfortunately, they did not ask Nicolai what the prices were at his hotel. I can guarantee you that they are the same and maybe even higher than in western countries, but the salaries are 3-4 times lower.

Hello! I am a Romanian living and working in Romania for an American company. The are a few issues with the average romanian employers: - they lack of entreprenurial education and culture; - they have no respect for honest work and honest workers; they usually behave like medieval landowners, entitled to decide life and death; - they always thinks that employees earn much more than they deserve; in their mind, five hundred euros a month is enough to have a decent living... From my experience, a salary of at least a thousand euros a month could be enough to have a decent life in Romania, IF you have a smaller rent (let's say 150 euros per month), you don't smoke or you don't generally indulge in any unreasonable spending, and you don't need to go on vacation. Those poor fellars from Nepal are more than happy to work their a** off for five hundred euros a month. I use to be like that twenty years ago. But now I can't. I am married, I have rent to pay and generally more obligations that require a bigger salary. So, if the romanian employers want romanian employees to work for them, they should start to pump more money in the salary department.

Someone in comments mentioned that cup of coffee in beachfront hotels in Romania costs more than 6 euro. I doubt a lot of people drink it. Having such crazy pricing policy there is no surprise that hotel occupancy is not great. It's simple math, if you have a hotel with one hundred rooms, you can jack up the price as $100 for a night for a room and it will have 10% occupancy (10 rooms occupied and 90 rooms vacant). Ten rooms for $100 brings you $1,000 per night. However, if you decrease the price for a room from $100 to $50, your occupancy rate will increase as well. Having $50 for a room per night you will have 50% occupancy, which brings you to $2,500 (50 rooms times $50) per night, which is two and a half times more. Don't the owners of the hotel know that? It's the basics of every business. So, they can spend $1,500 ($2,500 - $1,000) extra profit on increasing the salary and this will attract more local employees.

Of course, they can no longer find Romanian workers, at what low wages they offer and how much work they want in return. I'm glad that our time has come to see the business owners struggling :)

Alot of this business owners forget this is a free market. It is easy to attract people to your business, give them proper salaries and working conditions. But lowering your profit margins is never an option as far as I see.

I’m a Cuban American I visited Romania in august 2023 and I fell in love with the country and the people, also the culture landscapes you deserve better , better politicians and salaries .sending love to that beautiful country!

"Oh no, what can I do, the workers are leaving and I simply don't know why!" Have you tried paying your employees a higher salary?

there no labor shortage in Romania, there's an acute living wage shortage here. paying 500 euros when the minumum rent is probably 3-350€ is not desirable, you'll be eating scraps using the small amount left after paying your bills. the hotel owner in this video is already complaining and finding reasons why immigrants are already bad, not prepared and probably planning in his head how reduce the amount paid or extend their work hours, absolutely gutted by his attitude.

At the beginning business owners don't want to rise the salaries so local workers won't leave but later they will have to do it if they want to exist.

In Romania, a psychological test for future business owners to test their views about employees should be mandatory because you have many “landlords” like the one in this video that is seeing human lives like pawns.

Romania needs better laws that actually protect local workers and a higher minimum wage

For the hotel owner: How about providing decent salaries and work conditions?

Poor guy has three hotels and nobody to do his work for him. Isn't that so sad?

As a romanian, I'm surprised that a german news channel translates romanian to english to make a video. The world is truly borderless.

The reality is that people are getting paid better elsewhere and these hotel owners want to pay slave wages. If they increased their pay a bit more, they would get lots of people willing to work.

I feel like every employer that hires someone through the work program should have to pay a tax to cover the cost of bringing in unskilled labor.

I don't understand govts thinking immigration is the solution. In South Africa, it's the same, but our unemployment rate is very high and instead of gov funding South African students for higher education qualifications for example, they want to hire lecturers from other countries. Makes no sense. Invest in your citizens before looking OUTSIDE.

Low birth rates, massive emmigration and the economic boom of Romania in the last 10 years means it has a huge labor shortage. It doesn't help that business owners are unwilling to pay more but it reached a point where it's hard to find people even when it pays more.

Romaina needs more workers because thier 'workers' left for better lives and jobs in other countries. Maybe that countiry should take better care of thier people who earn unlivable wages right now and have for years...I visited some friends there a few years ago, students living in a 1 bedroom apartment, five of them , each had under 400 euros to live off of each month and they all worked.. The people that 'run' that country live in mansions while allowing the majority to live in poverty...OF COURSE THEY LEAVE!

This is clearly a case of underpaying and undervaluing labor. It doesn't make sense to compare french job opportunities to romanian ones, as many people would rather stay home if they had a decent pay. Sure, there are some people who just want to work in another country, almost regardless of pay, and there are also people who will move to anywhere if they can get a few pennies more, but a lot of people would rather stay home, even if higher paying jobs are available elsewhere. The Sri Lankan guy is a perfect example of that, he's only out there because his country is struggling hard.

The world has no future

Salaries are higher in the Western Europe, but so is cost of living there...

Cheap workers looks good on paper.. but in reality it's detrimental for the economy of a country.. you think those punjabis going to invest in romania? all the money goes back to india or nepal or wherever.

500 euro in month? :( sad

There is nowhere lack of workers only lack of good sallaries.

Prices in hotels are EXACTLY like in west Europe but salary is 3-4 times less. Of course I would not work in hospitality. I return in Romania after many years abroad and now I have a job in sales and I do ok but I will not work for a owner who drives a mega expensive car but pay low wages

owns a business he doesnt want to work in and wonders why he cant find people....

Same thing as in rest of the balkan, meny media speaking about labor shortages, but no one mention conditions that offered to future labor!

Romania Work Visa for foreigner workers is unfair business now. Romanian Recruiting agents and employers bring foreigner workers in Romania and than don't provide work to them or don't pay as labor contract. Also treat them as slave. Some employer get tax by thier salary. After this bad behavior, foreign work try to escape to schangen countries and get caught and deport. Romania embassies give appointments four to six months. And then refuse the applicant. Now it's worst situation for foreign workers in Romania.

There is no labor shortage just that it's hard to find people to work 6 days a week and extra hours for a bargrain salary and no vacation. Even people aged past 40 and even 50 are going to work in western countries where they find it more convenient. Nepalese and Sri Lankans are having little options at home so that's why they coming.

It is a normal course of life. Just as Romanians left for Western Europe to earn more money, people from other countries are now coming to Romania where they earn very little, because for their country, salaries in Romania are high salaries. It's not a tragedy and Romania has enough workers and if it doesn't make sense, from Asia, they pay them less and they work even more. Romanians live quite well, at least in the Transylvania area where there are enough jobs and much better paid than in the rest of the country. Those who want to work and live beautifully and well, can live quietly and with salaries from Romania, those who want luxury and 3-story houses, go west, work until old age, build 3-story houses and end up living in a house empty, in a small room. The cost of living in countries with high salaries is much higher, as are the taxes, so they compensate. Rents, taxes, food is much cheaper, that's why and higher salaries, simple to understand.

The biggest mistake of this news article was not disabling the comment section. As a Romanian I do hope the foreign workers do not settle for less or equal as us and move on for a better future. These hotel owners, restaurant owners, construction work higher-ups, factory higher-ups, bosses of any kind of manual work are willing to fire and replace people on a whim

As romanian I cant have anything but sympathy for sri lankan and asian workers. Not so long in the past my dad had to leave for western EU to provide me with all I needed to access higher education and get a well paid job. Years of sacrifice for an entire generation. Romanians, poles & many more - Bastiat said it best for us. As for all asian workers - you will always be greeted here by me and many others. We have some bad apples too, as you may have noticed. Nevertheless, please dont let that stop you. Also, as many others have said - take care, a lot of business owners are predatory in nature. Our state corruption & nepotism forged them like this. Know your worth, dont let them fool you. Its not worth it. Try to come only on positive feedback from your countrymen. Stay safe ❤

Romanian, Croatian, Czech and Serbian are labours of Europe who mostly works for France, Finland, Norway, Germany and Switzerland. German youth worker prefer even less pay. ut good location as Spain or countryside in france. I think European employers went too far to play with delicate balance of employee and workers. In future now it will cause many disputes among workers obviously local workers will hit new arrivals. it's same all over the world. for everything, I held German bureaucracy responsible.

The recipe for success: pressure on workers, with as few workers as possible and maximum profit. "nobody wants to work" they say

Umm, Unemployment refers to the share of the labor force that is without work but available for and seeking employment. Romania unemployment rate for 2021 was 5.17%, a 0.14% increase from 2020. - I wonder why they aren’t providing labor to these individuals. - Romania doesn’t seem to have a “labor shortage” but a GREEDY market. - Sickening

Same issue in Hungary. Next to zero salary, now they are getting workers from Asia but saying no Immigrants😂 Now they dont get why workers stayed in the western zone?

That is a sign of overheating in economy, like almost everywhere in Europe.

pay the workers reasonably and you won't have any problems

Native Romanian here: the employers in Romania are lying, they refuse to offer decent salaries and then complaint about labour shortage. That hotel owner charges the same as Western hotels , but pays his staff with 300 to 500 EUR per month. No wonder nobody wants to work for him. Back in 2000's , they were humiliating people who were looking for work, they just pick them up from the queu and offer them 50-100 USD per month, if the worker refused, they would famously say: "if you don't like walk away, there's 100 like you waiting outside for a job"

One group of worker underbidding the other. That is exactly how the rich get richer. ..... instead of people staying in their country. You can always import someone that's cheaper.

There isn’t a labour shortage.the problem is the wages and working conditions. They don’t want to pay proper wages.500€ a month? That’s a joke. No wonder there is a shortage

Clearly Romania should jsut deny work permits so that Romanias hotels etc have to use Romanian workers instead and pay higher salaries to achive it

Rather then making the work places more attractive, we import people from asia, not very productive

It's the same in Bulgaria. A terrible labor shortage.

There is no labour shortage in Romania, there is only a CHEAP LABOUR shortage.Employers, especially in hospitality srvices, still dream of the days when they were able to tell an employee-If you dont like it ,there are 10 people waiting at the door. Businesses who cant pay a living wage should be allowed to fail, not to be subsidized by workers from Asia

Pay them. It's easy and good condition's help!

The situation is the same in Bulgaria. After decades of economic problems and low birth rates, now there aren't enough people to work in low paying sectors such as tourism. The hotel owners here are straw men for the mafia as well, so the basic principles of supply and demand do not always apply. Money comes in from other sources, not from hotel activities. Also, those same people paid pitiful wages, made workers work overtime every day and in the end didn't pay them. Now they're crying over the lack of workers.

the thing with this immigrants is that Romania is temporary place for them.Once they get all paperwork,they flee to western Europe.I know cause I am from Arad in West Romania and here at Nadlac border they catch them in trucks and what not quite often. And then the bosses who they ran away from must bring others,and the circle repeats over and over again.

Maybe offer competitive wages?

Romanian are in the UK working so hard . Is they return, will be chaos for the UK lol

+ In my hometown, Tulcea there is a shipyard where they are moaninng romaninans don't want to work on 400 - 500 euros wage but they bring vietnamese on 1500euro monthly wage . If they pay romanians these wages they won't emigrate to Norway for 3000 euro wage. Hypocrisy of bussiness owners.

I live im romania and working as dishwasher in a hospital cafetaria romania people less racist then other balkanies country .ı love being in romania.ım from istanbul🙋‍♂️ı live with my elder brother.

One man's trash is another man's treasure

how about not asking us to be overqualified and with experience and then pay 400 euros?..... left romania 8 years ago tougether with 90% of my generation.... still the best decision in my life.... at the time you were struggeling to find a job even with 200... and all the mfs were asking for experience

Please tell about the miserably salaries there are in our country. This is why most of the cases there is a lack of workers. Please let Europe know the minimum net salary in romania is 410 euros and the prices for groceries are like in western europe.

This is not only Romania. It’s all over the planet. Do you know a county that has surplus in the work force ?

i have 2 srilanka's dudes in my city, working at a bar. polite, hard working and not thinking that anyone owes them anything.

€6,000 to an agency to find you a job in Romania. Wow.

So, in order to fix the labor shortage why don't they just try paying normal salaries?

That job at the beach resort will only last for three or four months. Why would someone leave a year round job in France for that?

Very strange for me, being romanian and having to speak in english in a restaurant in Bucharest, also in the airport. Weird times we're living.

I live in Bucharest and I see lots of asians every day, it really wasn't like this a couple of months ago, but its good, asians seem to be tireless workers, even though many times they dont get paid as much. I just love when I walk in a fast food and a sri lankan guy speaks to me in romanian

Working 7 days week? Shouldn't that be illegal in a EU country? Salaries are similar here in Turkey but cost of living is half and you got at least a day to rest.

That beach looked appalling with all the parasols/tables all neatly set up like a human car park.

1st step, detoxing the labour market. 2nd step ok wages And everyone is saying the same. NO ONE is surprised or guessing why people leave

Low wages = no workers It’s summer job. I can get 5000€ in Norway for summer job, why work for 500€ ?

Maybe paying a livable wage will help

I have an idea how to solve this. It may sound revolutionary, but it is worth a try. Pay people a decent salary and not expect them to live on minimum wage. It may be crazy enough to work.

Just the other day was a news story about an 18 years old boy hired for several days in Mamaia, worked 12h/day, and because he complained about the accommodation offered (were snails in the room), he was fired and not paid. That's why they can't find people...

Needs workers and birthrates going down. Theres two ways this ends.

If wage is the issue, then it is the responsibility of government to rise the lowest legal wage, so employers can't pay under wage.

Thanks

People saying they need slaves, I guess...

It is to be hoped that Romania does not look to North Korea for it's labour requirements, they do work for next to nothing but you will be paying a lot to their boss, he looks after their money for them, and you may incur quite a few additional costs in the long run.

Yeah,Romanian here,with those 550 euros that i am getting for a month back home i can barely pay rent utilities and buy food,not to mention that if you have a children you are basically doomed,parents sick?some illness that is having a medication thats not covered by the government?well,congratulations,you entered life in hard mode.And for the sickness of being part of this totally equal Europe,where every single country in Europe have the same minimum wage,i chosed to watch all this from another European country,where,i dont know,maybe there is a glich,maybe there is an error in the system,here they pay me 550 per week..😂

They believe that higher salaries equals better life, dream on. In UK there are a lot of situations where 16 people share a house of 4 rooms to afford the rent and to be able to save money

The fact that many Romanians migrated to Western Europe has risen significantly the wages in Romania, even if are still lower than Western Europe, the wages went from and average 380€ in 2013 to 820€ in 2023. Still much lower than Western Europe, but if it will more than double like it did in the next 10 years it will reach the wages of Spain and Italy.

Us emigrees are also a part of the Romanian economy, we send money back in and increase the country's GDP that's why salaries will never go up, they want to attract foreigners from poor countries while sending us Romanians abroad.

2:24 the food hygiene is a top notch. so he has his gloves to touch his face and then cook your food. amazing

"Labour shortage" places the blame on the workers. "Wage shortage", which is more accurate, places the blame on the employer. Unfortunately the the government instead of letting the "free market" regulate itself, opened a back door to let the immigrants in so that the supply of workers is high enough so that the employers don't have to pay fairly. Of course this patches a problem while creating a whole other one which is arguably worse.

Maybe pay them a decent wage...

Instead of paying the romanians more, so they don’t leave abroad for a better life, they bring people from much poorer countries to pay them even less. Life in Romania is not good, people are poor, those who are abroad will never return to this country only to be humiliated by the minimum wage in this country!