Produits de la mer - n°181 - Avril 2018 - 85

Dossier ❘ EMPLOI

Unspecialized staff
at the fish counters ?

here is a large need for recruiting
for the fish counters due to the
population pyramid: I reckon
that 15 to 20% of fish counter
employees are over 55 years old," summarizes Emmanuel Lecoz, in charge of the
Union nationale de la poissonnerie. Yet,
it is not for lack of training in the sector.
Fifteen or so schools offer fish selling CAP
(professional diploma) but applicants are
lacking. Finding a motivated apprentice
who will complete his studies is not an easy
task. The trade suffers from a bad image.
"Yet attitudes are changing. Today,
managers pay more attention to the scope
of the tasks, the number of hours. They
are more flexible regarding hours or days
off in lieu of overtime," insists Emmanuel
Lecoz. The activity being more intense on
Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, professionals often resort to students as additional employees. "They learn quickly
on-the-job and after a month or two, they
are able to cut a fillet or dehead a fish.
A temporary worker ends up doing the
job of a professional. So we pamper them

to keep them all through their university
studies," explains the project manager.
Confronted with the shortage of trained
staff, the supermarket managers train people who have skills other than fish selling.
"They are often over 30, have worked in
restaurants or the food processing industry
and are looking for a new job. It could just
be a change in activity or product department. Most of them have selling skills but
they do not know the product, nor the processing methods or the specificity of LMS,"
emphasizes Dominique Bertrand, manager
of Formafrais LMS, who trains a number of
these new recruits for ten or twelve days.
The latter also notes a feminization of the
profession since the trade is not as physically demanding due to many improvements notably as far as icing is concerned.
A number of shop managers also try to
poach fish counter managers from rival
companies.
"It is the less attractive task. The extra
money compared with what a sales assistant earns is considered insufficient
for time-consuming tasks," underlines

Dominique Bertrand. Particularly as with
the new regulations, the task load has
increased and stress levels are higher. "They
feel lost because of objectives which seem
out of reach without a minimum of training where they could learn how to make
up more margins" alerts this training tutor
with 14 years of experience in fish selling.
It is therefore not easy to attract and keep
skilled employees in the sector. ■

Choisir des cuisiniers

e métier a beaucoup changé en dix ans. Aujourd'hui,
le chef de rayon n'achète plus lui-même les produits,
il n'a donc pas besoin de savoir où sont les bateaux
ni de maîtriser les techniques de pêche.
Il peut se concentrer sur la vente.
Le recrutement est donc moins difficile car
on peut embaucher des profils plus larges,
qui ne connaissent pas forcément la
filière », explique Pierrick Lec'Hvien,
responsable produits de la mer de
Système U Ouest. Lui, cherche surtout
des personnes issues de la restauration
afin de développer la fumaison et le
traiteur maison. Système U dispose
de son propre centre de formation
où les nouvelles recrues, en moins
de trois semaines, apprennent les
techniques de découpe et de levée
de filets, la gestion d'un rayon...

To face up to the shortage of skilled
employees, traditional fishmongers resort to students
as additional employees when supermarkets
hire people with commercial skills but no seafood
particular knowledge.

Une formation express, en neuf semaines

ntre mai et juin 2017, le Centre de formation
professionnelle et de promotion des adultes
(CFPPA) de Bourcefranc (Charente-Maritime) a
formé huit demandeurs d'emploi au métier de
poissonnier. Les agences Pôle emploi du territoire
ont sélectionné des candidats et, après une réunion d'information, les personnes intéressées ont
fait des visites d'entreprise. « Les candidats retenus ont suivi 175 heures de formation au centre,

et 70 heures en entreprise. Sur un temps beaucoup plus court qu'un CAP, nous avons abordé les
mêmes thématiques », explique Marianne Perez,
la directrice du CFPPA, qui espère pouvoir renouveler l'opération en 2018. Après un an d'activité
professionnelle, les personnes formées pourront
tenter d'obtenir leur CAP sans avoir besoin de
retourner sur les bancs de l'école via une validation des acquis de l'expérience (VAE).

Les stagiaires, lors de travaux pratiques, ont appris à trancher, mettre en pavé, cuisiner, faire des calculs de rendement...

PRODUITS DE LA MER N°181 AVRIL 2018

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