I was shaken out of my early evening stupor when I suddenly saw Trevor Bond on my BBCTV screen last night. Local character Trevor, Australian by heritage but we wont hold that against him, was complaining that local people dont want to work. Trevor is general manager up at the Marina Hotel along the seafront, which was featured on the programme and in fact overall Trevor manages three hotels according to the programme, but he sighed deeply over the local work ethic. People turn up for two days then dont show up after that was the gist of it and generally prefer to stay in bed and stay on benefits. The hotel have a terrible time it seems recruiting local staff as people dont want to work. They are therefore very happy to employ immigrants who do want to work and have the skills to match the job. There is a supreme skill shortage..this was the plaintive cry.
Several talking heads were on the fairly long feature..
first pic here shows Rumanian Crista Buznea who is a sales executive with the hotel and very glad of the job and they in turn are glad to have her...
Immediately below we see Trevor himself bemoaning the state of play..."back in Australia if we didnt work we didnt eat" said Trevor.
Paul Carter also featured. Paul is of course leader at KCC and said..
"There are those people that don't want to get out of bed in the morning and go to work but I think the vast majority of people do want a decent job."
The programmes reporter then went and interviewed people up outside the Job Centre and all said they were very keen to work. Of course on these programmes you never get the guy who says..."I'm not working..you must be joking.. I prefer benefits"
This is a topic we have often talked about before but to see the problem brought home to us by a very local hotel, just 500 metres from my computer as the crow flies, gives you a wake up call.
