Winter illnesses bring hospitality ‘to its knees’
Restaurants and cafe´ s are cutting hours or simply closing the doors as winter illness exacerbates staffing shortages.
In Invercargill, The Homestead has shut temporarily so staff who are able to work aren’t on duty ‘‘every hour under the sun’’.
The restaurant is owned by the Invercargill Licensing Trust and chief executive Chris Ramsay said the team made the decision to protect the health and wellbeing of staff while dealing with a combination of flu, Covid-19 and the inability to recruit.
Under normal circumstances, there would be enough kitchen and front of house staff across the trust’s businesses to redeploy when illness hit, but this wasn’t an option now, he said.
Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said the same situation was playing out throughout the country.
Some businesses had shortened their working weeks while others were restricting bookings to cope, she said.
‘‘It’s putting a lot of pressure on our businesses. It’s not great off the back of subdued trading for the past two years.’’
On Friday, the Ministry of Health warned that the combination of traditional winter illnesses and Covid-19 was straining health services.
The hospitality industry was facing workforce shortages across the board, but mid to senior level skilled workers were particularly hard to find, Bidois said.
And the pinch would likely continue until skilled migrants and people on working holiday visas were moving freely through the border again, she said.
The Restaurant Association was running a recruitment campaign to highlight the benefits of working in hospo, but with low unemployment rates, the industry was also competing against other sectors.
Hospitality New Zealand Southland branch president Graham Hawkes said several cafe´s and restaurants in the region had shortened business hours or trading weeks.
In a short-staffed environment, illness meant businesses had to close because operators ‘‘simply can’t do it on their own’’.
‘‘Southland is on its knees trying to keep its establishments open,’’ Hawkes said.
The ‘‘drastic’’ staffing shortage meant some people were working in positions they weren’t quite capable of filling and Hospitality New Zealand was about to launch a training programme to upskill young cooks and chefs to manage kitchens, he said.
In the meantime, Hawkes urged customers to be patient.
‘‘The people who are serving you are doing the best they possibly can in difficult times,’’ he said.
‘‘The people who are serving you are doing the best they possibly can in difficult times.’’ Graham Hawkes Hospitality New Zealand Southland branch president