HoReCa employees to protest Wednesday in Victoriei Square

Employees of the HoReCa industry mobilized on Facebook to protest on Wednesday evening, starting 8:00 pm, in Victoriei Square, against the restrictions imposed by the authorities in Bucharest and in Ilfov County.

According to the announcement posted on the social network, more than 8,300 people are expected to participate in the protest.

"We are protesting against blaming HoReCa for the spread of Covid. We believe in the existence of this virus, we understand the seriousness of things, but we cannot agree with solving things with half measures or without a reasoned analysis of the outbreaks of infection," the organizers wrote.

About 100,000 employees in the HoReCa sector will be laid off by the end of the year, and the industry will suffer losses of three billion euros, as a result of the restrictions decided by the Government in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Calin Ile, head of the Romanian Hotel Industry Federation, told AGERPRES.

He said that Tuesday's decision by the Bucharest City Emergency Situations Committee to close restaurants and cafes was taken without authorities providing any evidence that the sector had contributed to the spread of the infection.

"After this decision to close the restaurants without communication and without arguments presented logically, we will again have to furlough people whom with great difficulty we managed to keep in this difficult period. Until now we were talking about the fact that 40% of HoReCa employees will be laid off by the end of the year, and now, with this decision, another 10 percent will be added. Of 230,000 people employed in hotels and restaurants in Romania at the beginning of the year, we have estimated so far that 80,000 will be fired by the end of the year, but now I think we will reach 90-100,000. Which is a lot," Ile stressed.

According to him, the sector has survived so far due to the decisions taken by the Government to ensure furlough and the compensation of 41.5% of the salary after the return to work of the people.

"We estimate that our industry will lose about 60% of its turnover in 2020. Last year we had five billion euros in revenue from HoReCa, and 60% means a loss of about three billion euros," the industry representative continued.

The direct contribution to GDP of the HoReCa sector is 2.79%, and the total is 5.4%.

"Many restaurants will never open again, and those most at risk are those that pay rent for spaces such as malls or other shopping centers," Ile added.

Sector officials will request a compensation plan from the Government in the near future. The first meeting is scheduled for Friday at the Ministry of Labor, and a discussion with Prime Minister Ludovic Orban is possible next week.

"The measures required by the HoReCa industry are aimed at three levels: compensatory measures for employees, cash infusion in our industry, by supplementing grants and amounts allocated to the sector, as well as reducing taxes and charges, such as those on buildings and land, according to the model in the Great Britain, where the decision was made to exempt the sector from paying taxes for a year," concluded Ile.