HOSPITALITY SHORT HANDED AS LOCAL TOURISM GROWS

Australia’s got a case of Island time when it comes to the vaccine rollout and this coupled with the fortress Australian mentality is hindering the reopening of the international border. Prior to the pandemic the hospitality industry was booming and whilst the overseas market isn’t here, Australians are somewhat making up for it by prolifically holiday in our own backyard. According to tourism research Australia, intrastate travel has exploded since the pandemic began with higher percentages of spending recorded every month.

Overseas travellers and students make up a huge portion of the hospitality industry workforce and in their absence, restaurants and venues are experiencing a dire staff shortage across the board. Chefs have always been in high demand and a scarce resource and this issue is only compounding. Skilled facets of the industry such as managers and sommeliers are also severely lacking as are front line staff and business simply can’t make up for their shortages with homegrown workers.

Justin Hemmes, overlord of the Merivale empire noted a 49 per cent reduction in the number of job applicants in the last year and that in general he relies heavily on foreign workers, often outsourcing to fill roles, “we have found the best way to maximise success in new venues is to recruit, relocate and sponsor highly-skilled, specialised chefs who have worked in their area of expertise for many, many years and who bring unparalleled skills to our country”.

The flow-on effect from the absence of a foreign workforce is that businesses aren’t able to operate at capacity thus reducing the hours of operation. This in turn equates to longer hours for existing staff and an expansion of the original job description as staff switch roles depending on which department is short on the day. “It’s a dying trade and Covid’s killed it.” Said David Allen, owner of Cobargo pub.

The allure of hospitality work was already on a downturn prior to the pandemic and the industry became incredibly vulnerable because of it, now it appears its image hasn’t improved. Hospitality workers were considered essential at one point but that status changed, its tenuous nature becoming a disincentive. Foreign workers were deemed ineligible for the Federal Government’s Job Keeper payments creating a mass exodus of skilled workers. Those able to access benefits were fearful of moving into another job as it could result in a loss of payments.

Theoretically, there should be enough humans to fill the positions as low unemployment rates remain steady. The underemployment rates are slightly higher and it could be surmised that there is a stigma problem with the industry as the Hospitality Union reports an influx of wage theft. The Hospo Union is campaigning that workers, “stand with me to demand the pay rise we deserve this July” after the industry successfully froze the annual wage increase for the last nine months.

International students who haven’t flown the coop have been allowed to work over their previous 40 hours a fortnight cap in an initiative by the Australian government to fill the industry gap left by the departure of 600,000 temporary visa holders that left last year. This has caused many students to engage in more work as rental prices remain high and in demand.

Currently, there are more than 46,000 hospitality jobs advertised online but many businesses are no longer listing their positions because there aren’t enough qualified applicants, “we can survive but without enough staff, the standard of service is lower than before”, Mr Nguyen of I Love Pho said.

Staff are certainly in a position of power at the moment and business owners are reworking their models to adapt. The hospitality industry has long suffered a cultural attitude that it isn’t a ‘real job’ and the arduous, peculiar hours are propelling workers into other industries, never to return.

SECOND DAY NEWS STORY – LOCAL HOSPITALITY VENUES IN LIMBO

In lieu of broader horizons, Australians are seeking leisure locally as the international border remains closed for the foreseeable future. The growth of the local economy should be welcome news after the pandemic but the hospitality industry is struggling to navigate the rekindled demand without access to the foreign workforce. This phenomenom has affected businesses on the Coal coast creating a conundrum even as we move into winter.

Hospitality is known to be a demanding job with late nights, weekend work and intoxicated guests as traits of the job. Since the pandemic, foreign workers left the country in droves as the government refused to offer benefits to non-residents and the ongoing borer closure has meant they cannot reenter. Local businesses that are generally bombarded with resumes from travellers, foreign skilled workers and international students are minimising their business hours in alignment with dwindling staff numbers.

Bar manager at The Vic, Alex Smith attributes a lack of local staff to the realisation that they have the pick of jobs and don’t necessarily have to work in a venue that’s open to 3 am if they don’t need to, “they can easily get a job a quieter venue that closes earlier and get paid the same amount so staff turnover is higher than ever as employees move around to find what suits them.”

The absence of foreign workers in other sectors has opened a gateway for those already in hospitality looking for a change or a chance to depart. The owner of Low & Lofty surmised that Australians aren’t willing to do the work because there are better options with more money and that aren’t as physically demanding or as stressful as hospitality.

“We’ve had to close an extra day because of the shortage, I’m a kitchen hand most of the time which takes away from me looking after customers and being the face of the business.” Mr Roberts said.

“It’s affected every business as every venue is down one or two people minimum and I’d say seventy percent of them are kitchen staff, I haven’t had a kitchen hand in months.

“On weekends I get worried I’m going to be too busy, I mean how fucked is that.”

A source who had recently exited the industry due to the ongoing pressure of finding new staff in a barren landscape said the lack of balance in the industry had caused her to burn out. She had worked in the industry for fifteen years but cited the plethora of roles in other areas as an exit option to good to pass up.

There are multiple factors playing into the industries struggle at present but the ‘small bar’ model seems to be in better standing as they typically offer a simplistic food menu and shorter hours and a majority are run by their owners thus requiring a smaller external workforce. The Howlin’ Wolf in the Wollongong CBD hasn’t had any trouble attracting and maintaining staff as it’s employee Bronwyn can attest to. She believes that even despite late nights and weekend work, she is paid fairly and is lucky to have such great bosses.

“I personally love it, serving overly chatty drunk people and listening to good music makes all the difference, it honestly feels like I’m on a night out myself sometimes.”

There appears to be no fast remedy for the situation unless the border reopens, whilst some businesses are thriving and on track to accrue revenue lost from the lockdown last year others are making do for now. Miss Smith from The Vic believes that “It will be hard until we see backpackers and international students allowed back into the country to bulk up staff again”.

In terms of training for the industry, local TAFE’s have seen a dramatic decline in the number of Chef based apprenticeships with numbers almost halved in the last decade. There is an image problem that hospitality isn’t as professional as it once was and that working under Gordon Ramsey types is farcical in our modern ecosystem.

Sophie who attends Wollongong university says Hospitality work overall is pretty good and that the culture of the industry seems decent, “you need to be the right person though and the business needs to be right for you. It’s a good job to get me by for now but I definitely don’t want to be doing it forever”.

Time will tell if the industry recovers or recedes and in this somewhat post-pandemic landscape the common sentiment is uncertainty for the future. Business owners feel constricted in that they may build up staff numbers again only to have it potentially unravel at any point.