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Closing party bookings over the Christmas period is the last thing a restaurant owner wants to do. But that’s the harsh reality for Rattlesnake, featured in an independent restaurant The Michelin GuideWhich, like most hospitality businesses, suffers from staff shortages and compromises.
“We used to be able to do 26 (people for Christmas party bookings) but now we can’t do that at all. Now we can do a maximum of 10,” said York restaurant owner Clary O’Callaghan.
The shortage means that whoever called to make a reservation for a large number of people has been turned away.
“Independent restaurants are in the same boat: we have to limit numbers to ensure customers get the best service.”
The restaurant has five chefs and six front-of-house staff, but needs one or two more chefs and two front-of-house workers. He is not alone in the pain of what has been called an “existential risk” for the hospitality industry.
London celebrity chef Jason Atherton said last month that he would have to close restaurants in the new year because a third of his restaurants were vacant. Tom Kerridge, Rick Stein, Angela Hartnett and Raymond Blank have also voiced support for training and hiring more hospitality workers.
Other restaurants are making compromises on who they hire. One restaurateur said they are training front-of-house staff to do kitchen work, which is not ideal, as well as hiring international students, who are allowed to work 20 hours a week.
Last month, a group of hospitality organizations wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions calling for “immediate intervention” in what was becoming a “perfect storm” that would force businesses to close.
Mel Stride MP, UK Hospitality, British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA), British Institute of Innkeeping (BII), Institute of Hospitality and Charity Springboard wrote in a joint letter that the recruitment crisis is “threatening the very existence of our industry. “.
“This isn’t just a problem facing one type of venue or hospitality business, it’s a universal issue, and it’s critical because bright, passionate people are the lifeblood of hospitality,” the letter said.
BBPA chief executive Emma McClarkin said the vacancy rate in the hospitality sector is 11%, compared with the UK average of 4%, and costs the industry £22bn a year.
“It’s clear that hospitality is struggling to attract the people we need,” she said. “Obviously, we’ve always had a problem getting enough chefs in the kitchen. That was the case even before the pandemic, but now we are struggling to even get people to come home; It was never a problem before. And it will have an impact on Christmas.”
McClarkin said that many workers from abroad had left during the pandemic and not returned, this was particularly the case with EU workers, who no longer had freedom of movement in the UK.
She said uncertainty due to various lockdowns, where businesses were forced to close at short notice, had also seen employees leave the industry.
“We are seeing people who also walked away (from the industry) because they were worried about long-term security. So they may have gone to work for Amazon or a delivery company, or perhaps to work in a supermarket or retail environment, where they felt they were able to maintain an income.”
The organization estimates that pubs are losing 16% of sales due to staff shortages.
“There is a difference between building a business and not building one. That’s how hard it is. We are in a ‘cost of doing business’ crisis, as well as a cost of living crisis.
Pubs are now closing at a rate of 50 per month, compared with 30 per month at the start of the year. Last month, it was revealed that restaurant closures have increased by 60% since the pandemic, with 1,567 bankruptcies in 2021-22, up from 984 in 2020-21, according to a study by consultancy Mazars. The figure includes 453 in the last three months, up from 395 in the previous quarter.
McClarkin said: “We expect it to get worse in the coming months, so we really need a great Christmas.”
The hospitality industry is running a joint campaign called Hospitality Rising to encourage people to take up jobs in pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes. McClarkin said: “A job in a pub is not just a stopgap, it’s an opportunity to fast-track into a long career where you have a lot of fun. There is never a dull moment in hospitality.”
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