Wage bill hits town eateries

carly.gooch@stuff.co.nz

Getting out on a public holiday for a meal is often up there with beach going and a country drive, but why are some eateries adding a surcharge?

Hospitality New Zealand national treasurer Tony Crosbie said bigger cities including Wellington and Auckland were ‘‘really hitting hard’’ with the holiday surcharge while operators in smaller cities were less inclined to charge extra or opted to close.

Closing in peak tourist time wasn’t ideal either, he said.

Crosbie said during visits to Kaiko¯ ura and Blenheim over the Christmas period, he saw 60 per cent of the eateries shut. ‘‘It’s quite concerning because all the accommodation is chocka.’’

He said, where possible, eateries should be opening and passing on the costs to customers ‘‘where they can’’ to allow for the increased cost of wages.

In accordance with New Zealand employment law, staff working on a public holiday are to be paid at least time and a half, and if the day falls on a normal work day for the employee, they are also entitled to another paid day off (a day in lieu).

Nelson’s Lambretta’s Cafe Bar co-owner Ryhs Odey said the costs were ‘‘massive’’.

A 10 per cent surcharge didn’t come close to recovering the extra needed to pay staff.

‘‘It’s the days in lieu that kills you.’’

Comments on social media site Neighbourly showed mixed feelings about a 15 per cent surcharge.

Opposing views included: ‘‘I avoid any premises that has surcharges.’’

‘‘I also steer clear of eateries that surcharge on public holidays. As far as I am aware, no other business type that opens on such days charge extra. So why do they do it?’’

One in support of a surcharge said: ‘‘When you have to pay time and a half plus a day in lieu I can understand completely why places charge or just don’t open on public holidays.’’

Crosbie said hospitality was already a challenging business with compliance costs and the Government’s hike in the minimum wage would ‘‘tip a lot of them over the edge’’. First came the tomo – then the tourists.

Speaking eight months after a huge tomo developed on the Tumunui South farm he manages outside Rotorua, Colin Tremain said he didn’t regret posting on social media about the huge hole, even though the reaction took him by surprise.

Shortly after posting photos of the sinkhole, Tremain said, the media arrived, then the scientists, then the locals, then the tourists.

It’s the last bunch that have caused him some problems.

‘‘The biggest issue I’ve had is it’s a working farm,’’ he said.

‘‘Tourists have not listened and respected what I’ve said. That’s been the biggest issue.’’

Tremain said the tomo, which measured more than 150 metres long and was 20m wide in some places, had been fenced off and the shallow parts filled in.

The tomo was first discovered by Argentinian farm hand Gabriel Lafalla early on April 29, and speaking shortly afterwards he revealed it could have claimed his life as he rode his bike in the early morning darkness. He said if he had been riding a few more inches to the right, he would have fallen in.

‘‘I touched myself [the sign of the cross] and said to myself, ‘I’m alive’.’’

The tomo came amid a weekend of terrible weather.

Geonet vulcanologist Brad Scott said heavy rain often caused sinkholes along fault lines to reactivate. ‘‘Eventually a cavity can get so big that the overlying land falls into it, and boom – a collapse hole or ‘tomo’.’’