Hospitality staffing crisis: Prezzo to give teams pay rise and Boxing Day off

Prezzo has announced it will give staff a pay rise next month and close all of its restaurants on Boxing Day in a bid to boost recruitment.

The Italian restaurant chain said all 2,500 of its team members will see their pay rise by an average of 4%.

It has also introduced new development opportunities for kitchen and front of house teams and increased pay for restaurant managers by 5% to make the roles more attractive.

All Prezzo's restaurants will close on Boxing Day to give teams a two-day break during the busiest trading period of the year.

Karen Jones, executive chair of Prezzo, said: "Reopening all of hospitality after a third prolonged lockdown has been an extraordinary challenge. Every part of the industry has felt the strain and at the front line stand our wonderful teams, front and back of house, of whom we are so proud.

"Making sure we get pay right is a pre-requisite; ensuring our Prezzo people feel valued and cared for is equally as important. We can never do enough in this regard to ensure the future flourishing of all."

Prezzo is the latest large hospitality company to increase wages in the face of major staff shortages across the industry. Last week, Asian-inspired restaurant chain Itsu announced it is increasing the hourly wage for entry-level team members by 11% to a minimum of £10.40 an hour from October, while Pret A Manger is giving a 5% pay rise to staff working in its UK shops from next month.

Earlier this month, Costa Coffee also announced it was raising wages by 5% for all 14,500 staff working in company-owned stores in the UK ahead of plans to hire 2,000 new recruits.

Last week the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published research that revealed hospitality businesses are more than twice as likely than other industries to be experiencing challenges in filling vacancies.

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