Hospitality operators face legal concerns over new unvaccinated mandate

Leading Queensland restaurant owners are demanding more answers from government as concern grows as to how they will tackle tough new rules for unvaccinated diners and staff.

Queensland’s leading restaurateurs say the government’s mandate banning unvaccinated diners and staff from eateries as of mid-December has created a costly legal minefield they’re nervous to navigate, and are calling for more answers.

Simon Gloftis behind popular restaurants SK Steak & Oyster and Hellenika in Fortitude Valley said he had hired a legal firm to communicate with staff who were unvaccinated as he tried to work through the difficult and controversial situation.

“I’ve got an external company that I use for staff for legal advice and I’ve had to go to them for wording (in communicating to staff),” he said.
“It’s already costing me a fortune but I want to make sure I’m doing the right thing.”

He said he didn’t want to lose staff, especially at a time when hospitality was suffering from a critical workers shortage, and revealed “something doesn’t feel right about (the mandate) in my gut”.

Restaurateur Simon Gloftis has hired a legal firm to help with the new government vaccination mandate. Picture: Richard Walker

He was also concerned about losing 20 per cent of his customers, with only the 80 per cent of fully vaccinated in the community allowed to dine out.

“I’ve worked over 20 years to build my customers, I don’t want to lose one customer let alone 20 per cent through no means of my own,” he said.

He called for the government to address the finer issues of the new mandates and provide businesses with a clear outline of their legal rights.

Cordell Khoury, owner of Brisbane’s top pizza restaurants Beccofino in Teneriffe and Julius in South Brisbane, agreed and said the mandate posed more questions than answers.

“What happens if a party of eight turns up and one person isn’t vaccinated? Almost everyone in our restaurant is vaccinated, what if someone says they don’t want to do it, where do we stand? Who knows how it’s going to play out,” he said.

The restaurateur said the mandate would also most likely be costly for his businesses as he would need to pay staff for the extra time spent checking patrons’ proof of vaccination.

“That’s just another expense in an industry that’s already expensive to run,” he said.

While co-owner of some of Brisbane’s hottest restaurants, Agnes, Bianca, Honto and Same Same, Ty Simon said he was just happy to be able to operate at full capacity with the mandate allowing venues to run without any caps on diner numbers or density limits from December 17.

Agnes owners Ben Williamson and Ty Simon. Picture: Josh Woning

“We’ve disappointed a lot of people with limited capacity so we’re just excited to have more people in the restaurant,” he said.

“Yes, there will be a time and a resource thing to it but, our industry, we have been adjusting for 18 months and while it is another thing to do, we’ll just roll with it and adapt to it.”