Catering leaders warn labour shortages could deepen

Malta’s catering sector risks facing severe labour shortages if current bottlenecks in the recruitment system persist, industry stakeholders cautioned during a panel discussion held at the Association of Catering Establishments’ (ACE) annual conference on Tuesday.

Speaking at The Way Forward conference hosted at the db San Antonio Hotel & Spa, industry leaders said that while the economy continues to fuel growth across hospitality, the supply of local talent has failed to keep pace – leaving third-country national (TCN) workers as an indispensable pillar of day-to-day operations.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Tourism Ian Borg, as well as Malta Tourism Authority CEO Carlo Micallef, were present for the discussion.

‘A disaster’ if non-EU workers left the sector

During a panel entitled ‘TCNs – A true solution for the catering industry?’, Institute of Tourism Studies (ITS) CEO Pierre Fenech underscored the scale of Malta’s labour dependency.

With the sector having “tripled” in size, he warned that the country simply does not produce enough graduates to sustain its hospitality workforce on its own.

ITS is opening campuses abroad to attract more students, yet even under the most optimistic projections, the number of annual graduates would reach only around 700. According to Fenech, this falls far short of industry demand.

“The industry is growing. [Even] if no TCNs or Maltese people leave the industry, we [will] need 2,000 people each year,” he said. “So, the mathematics are what they are”.

He described the prospect of non-EU workers exiting Malta en masse as a “disaster”.

ACE member and restaurateur Alex Aquilina echoed his concern, remarking that “If TCNs pulled out, we wouldn’t have an industry… Our industry is labour-intensive”.

Regulators ‘caught off guard’ after years of short-term planning

Recruitment specialist and Association for Temping and Outsourcing Agencies (AFTA) representative Daniel Coppini said the current pressures stem from more than a decade of rapid expansion and fragmented regulation.

“Over the past 15 years, short-term gains were prioritised over any sort of vision, so we ended up with stratospheric numbers… with a government which was caught off guard and not prepared,” he said.

He noted that “completely unprepared people, completely unprepared legislation” contributed to the emergence of exploitation and “horror stories” affecting foreign workers.

However, he said recent reforms – particularly legislative tightening of temping agencies and the introduction of the Malta Migration Policy – have had a significant cleansing effect.

“We were finally given proper legislation. Many of the cowboys are completely – I would say 90% – out of that game at this point,” he said.

The policy overhaul increased fees for new registrations of TCN workers while lowering renewal fees to encourage staff stability and combat poor practice.

Processing delays still ‘scaring’ employers and workers

Much of the discussion centred on Identità, with operators warning that prolonged processing times could push workers – especially those with in-demand skills – to look to other EU countries.

Identità representative Andrea Cardona acknowledged sector frustrations but attributed delays to incorrectly submitted paperwork and time-consuming due diligence checks involving multiple bodies, including JobsPlus and the police.

“One factor Identità is seeing a lot of, is applications submitted incorrectly or without documentation, and this obviously prolongs the process,” he said. “Another factor is due diligence checks, which involve various stakeholders… When it comes to national security, sometimes these things take time”.

Mr Coppini, however, said delays were not limited to new applications, pointing to slow renewals that make workforce planning near impossible.

He cited the case of one employee still waiting for their ID card three months after biometric data was submitted.

“I just can’t put my finger on why it’s taking so long,” he said.

He warned that countries like Spain and Portugal could become more attractive to workers if Malta’s processing system remains unpredictable.

Skills pass leading to ‘better-prepared’ applicants

Despite the challenges, panellists agreed that the introduction of the skills pass exam has significantly improved applicant quality.

Mr Fenech said the assessment had exposed major gaps in the skill levels of many prospective non-EU workers who previously entered the sector.

“When we launched this skills pass, the failure rates were close to 50 per cent,” he said. “Within the first two months, we started seeing these failure rates go down”.

He attributed this to unqualified candidates being discouraged from applying.

More than 5,000 non-EU workers have now obtained the skills pass.

Aquilina said that while he had lost a prospective chef due to exam failure, he remained supportive of the measure. He described the tool as necessary but in need of “fine-tuning” to reduce avoidable delays.

Retention, respect, and integration remain long-term priorities

Beyond recruitment hurdles, panellists emphasised that the sector’s long-term viability depends on how workers are treated once they arrive.

“Our people are the soul of our business,” Aquilina said. “We need to respect them, we need to treat them well, we need to pay them well.”

He said predictable response times from authorities were essential for maintaining stable staffing levels.

“What I would like to see is a speedier response to our needs, because we cannot lose our core energy, which is running operations… we can’t operate without people,” he said.

Mr Cardona added that losing workers who have already begun integrating into Maltese society undermines national efforts to support social cohesion among foreign nationals.

Asked whether the sector could ever reverse its dependence on foreign labour by attracting more Maltese workers, Mr Coppini blamed demographic realities.

“Basically, we don’t make enough babies,” he said, pointing to Malta’s persistent low fertility rate.

Mr Fenech said this challenge is compounded by a strong economy offering young people more attractive job opportunities outside hospitality.