The owner of the Mannin Hotel has said the new seasonal worker migrant visa for hospitality businesses isn’t enough to help the ’staffing crisis’.

Government announced this week that it has introduced a Worker (Seasonal) Migrant visa targeted towards the hospitality industry.

This was directly in response to the needs of the sector and requests from the hospitality industry.

Keith Lord felt it may not be enough to help his and others’ businesses with staffing shortages.

He said: ’The situation staff-wise is desperate.

’There’s a serious skills shortage in a lot of service industries. It’s in the construction services as well, even the engineering side is short.

’Being a service economy, we can’t service the economy without the people to do it. We’re going to lose out, Treasury’s going to lose out with employment taxes and insurance deductions and also VAT.

’We’re short of about four to five staff now, and there’s a lot of job poaching going on which is no good for anyone really.

’If we can’t get the staff we can’t run the operation to capacity.’

He explained a lot of people have moved from hospitality and moved into other sectors, the pandemic being the main cause of this.

Mr Lord added: ’Many Eastern Europeans have left the island and there’s simply going to be more of a demand than what can be coped with, with the number of staff on the island.

’This new visa will give us access to Eastern Europeans whereas before we’d have had to pay £2,500 before they even come here, you don’t know who you’re getting, they might not be any good.’

The hotel and restaurant owner felt the visa was ’another arrow to the bow’ but accommodation would be an issue.

’Any people coming over here will have a job to get accommodation to live in. You could end up using your letting rooms to actually house the workers,’ he said.

’I don’t think the government can do anything about the accommodation for these people. The hospitality industry will just have to try and help these people, if they come over that is.’

’The other thing is uptake,’ Mr Lord said. ’It’s quite well known that they’re doing quite well in their own areas now and there’s not the same incentives.

’Going back five or six years, impoverished people were earning about £250 a month and they’d come over here and earn £1,600 wages plus a month but now these countries have gained considerable increases in wages.

’Our own staff have to have holidays as well and we’re actually down to a skeleton staff.’

The new visa isn’t a route currently available in the UK.

Minister for Enterprise Alex Allinson said: ’This route is a significant and positive step for the hospitality sector, enabling many businesses to employ workers from outside of the UK and Ireland to satisfy local vacancies which are proving difficult to fill with Isle of Man workers.

’It’s hoped that this new visa will help businesses with their workforce planning in the lead up to the busier months, by enabling the employment of seasonal workers from outside the UK and Ireland, including those workers impacted by Brexit.’

The new Seasonal Migrant Worker visa enables local hospitality businesses to employ non-settled seasonal workers for a maximum of nine months and is available for individuals who have not already held the equivalent visa in the Isle of Man, UK, or Channel Islands within the three months prior to applying.