By Josh Resnek
A spate of articles appearing in trade journals and in the Boston Herald indicate that Encore’s hiring of 5200 employees has decimated the employment pool for many local restaurants.
Local restaurants, the articles all indicated, are having to pay bonuses or higher salaries, or to renegotiate contracts with chefs and restaurant personnel because Encore has pulled away so many to work inside the restaurants at its casino.
In general, Encore has hired away thousands of hospitality workers, making the employment marketplace for such workers extremely thin.
In a recent report published in the Boston Herald, it is revealed that as Encore Boston Harbor is in the process of massive hiring in the restaurant labor market, the other local joints have begun facing the heat.
The report quotes, Mark D’Alessandro, the general manager of Mistral and operations manager for the Columbus Restaurant Group saying; “We already had issues with finding staff — the casino has added a whole other dimension to it.”
The concerns of the restaurant owners are that the new casino has upped the wages and that is making it very difficult for local and older restaurants to stay afloat.
Talking to the Boston Herald, spokeswoman Rosie Salisbury said: “We received 135,000 applications for positions within the resort and are pleased with the caliber of candidates that we have been able to attract.”