Cafes will have to charge more
Advocates missing mark with simplistic take on sick leave
The push to increase the standard of living for low wage earners is admirable. Ensuring that those who are sick stay home to recover and not spread their germs to others is something we can all get behind.
But when unplanned time off leaves a small business without enough staff to cover a shift, or when the person has already used up all of their sick leave entitlement, the goal posts can shift.
Green Party workplace relations spokeswoman Jan Logie said workers often felt pressured to work even when they should stay at home.
This point of view was supported by another advocate who said hospitality businesses are often “chronically understaffed” so workers often had to come in even if they had enough leave.
But both miss the mark with their simplistic analysis of the issues with sick leave.
Long time hospo workers, employers and employees alike, talk of their work colleagues as second families. Staff spend a lot of time together, sometimes at times of the day that other people are with their families, and through the nature of hospitality work strong bonds form.
So it stands to reason relationships developed can replicate those of families. Bosses don’t want their staff to get sick, any more than the workers want to take time off for sickness.
Not just because of the effect on the business but also because of the duty of care shared.
I’ve been so inspired by the professionals I’ve met as they pursue a career in our industry that I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else.
To watch the community of chefs, front of house staff, cafe and restaurant owners, (or workers ) share ideas, inspire one another, and establish genuine relationships is, for me, what this business is all about.
The idea that a business owner would try to force a sick colleague into work is not something I can relate to.
The reality is often far more subtle. For our small businesses, someone not able to come to work can mean the difference between opening and closing that day.
Or it leaves another colleague in the position of having to wrangle lastminute child care, work a double shift or miss out on a much-needed day off.
Often it will mean the owner jumping in to cover the gaps in
service that can result from an absent employee.
Our industry suffers a shortage of skilled staff and this issue has intensified with the closure of our borders, meaning students and those on working-holiday visas are no longer available to us.
Coming into our busy season, without enough Kiwis looking to get into the industry, many businesses will face inevitable staff shortages.
But no responsible business owner would want to prolong a worker’s recovery, nor encourage that person to come in and make others sick by forcing them to come in.
This is particularly true during the pandemic where hospitality businesses are operating under heightened operational processes. We are mindful of our responsibility and we take it very seriously.
Like all industries you have great employers and not so great employers. Our industry is not unique in this regard.
But equally, the reality is that in any workplace you will have those who use workplace privileges as they were intended, and others that abuse them. The law changes seek to protect the honest but will benefit all.
And while larger businesses can arguably afford to absorb those additional costs, hospitality businesses are usually small businesses operating on extremely tight margins and the implications of having to cover the cost of sick leave doubling in an instant is a stressful concept to take on board.
We know as an industry that with the additional costs to our business of minimum wage increases, additional sick pay and rising food costs menu price hikes are inevitable.
But the unfortunate truth is that we are not operating in a retail duopoly where customers have limited choice. There are 18,000 hospitality outlets across New Zealand, all competing for your food-dollar spend, meaning businesses that put up their prices live in fear that the cafe next door will not, leaving them fighting a price war.
No employer wants to pay low wages but the reality is that if we want more equitable work places we all need to play our part in absorbing the cost of this.
And that means paying more for your flat white.
Earlier this year Sophie Gilmour wrote for the Spinoff arguing that the hospitality industry was broken. Her solution was to “reopen the profit margin that we have allowed to close by putting our menu prices up now”.
Sophie’s belief that most diners would be happy to pay a few dollars more for the same if they knew it meant fair wages, supporting local suppliers, reducing our footprint on the planet and the survival of their local restaurants, cafes and bars opens up a gateway for our industry to start claiming fair recompense for their work.
A critical component of our Covid recovery is attracting and retaining a skilled workforce who love what they do and are respected and fairly compensated for it.
The late Anthony Bourdain said it best: “You can always tell a person who has worked in a cafe, restaurant or bar. There’s an empathy that only can be cultivated by those who have stood between a hungry mouth and a $28 main”.
The idea that anyone who works in our industry could lack sufficient empathy to deny a sick colleague a day off displays a blatant misunderstanding of our values.
Our industry develops the soft skills recruiters talk about — discipline, promptness, the ability to absorb criticism and, most importantly, how to read people like a book.
The world would be a kinder place if more people worked in hospitality.