Melbourne restaurants rally for international workers ineligible for assistance
Melbourne restaurateurs are rallying behind their international workers who are unable to get home or draw on government support. Here’s how you can help.
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Their faces aren’t on TV, they don’t write cookbooks or columns or host cooking shows.
But international workers are the backbone of our hospitality industry – and many are now facing a precarious future unable to work, unable to get home and unable to draw on the Federal Government’s Jobseeker or Jobkeeper support.
While in the past week the Northern Territory and Tasmanian governments have announced support packages for their temporary visa holders, there’s no such Jobkeeper gap-filling yet in Victoria.
But Melbourne’s restaurateurs are finding innovative ways to both help their international workers and draw attention to their plight.
From offering themed banquet menus to setting up online grocery stores, restaurateurs are transforming their businesses in order to keep their temporary visa holders in work.
Chef/restaurateur Geoff Lindsay from Lamaro’s Hotel said his business relied on the skills of international chefs and waiters.
“As a chef in Melbourne for 30-something years, the whole time the industry has been made up of international workers. We wouldn’t have restaurants at all, or certainly wouldn’t have the industry we’ve got, if it wasn’t for international workers,” he said. “Some of the icons of the industry came in on various sorts of visas.”
Since the lockdown came into effect in March, the popular South Melbourne pub has transformed into a gourmet grocer and boutique bottle store offering cook-at-home meals, with international staff producing the food and also doing odd jobs, including painting the pub.
“We’re just trying to find work for them, at least try to keep these guys coming in (to work). That’s what motivated me to try and do these special dinners,” he said.
Every week, Lamaro’s offers an original menu designed by one of the international chefs showcasing their food culture. The first, which is available until Saturday for pick-up, is a Thai New Year banquet, with Korean and Vietnamese and vegan menus to follow every Thursday for the next month.
At Attica, chef/owner Ben Shewry has teamed with food writer Dani Valent to launch The Attica Soup Project, where $5 from every Thai chicken broth sold goes towards making soup to give to unemployed hospitality workers on temporary visas.
“Attica depends on its 20 overseas workers to function and will need these chefs, waiters, managers and sommeliers to rebuild. They are threaded through our hospitality world and indeed our society. But the message from the government is: ‘Go home’,” he said.
“Adding a pro-bono soup project may not be the wisest move as a business, but it is the right move.”
The San Telmo Group has created a click-and-collect store of grocery boxes, ready meals, dry aged meats and other South American fare with all profits donated to their workers who are ineligible for government support.
Over the Easter long weekend, Jessi Singh gave all the proceeds from the takeaway and delivery orders at his CBD restaurants Daughter in Law and Mrs Singh to the temporary visa holders working in the two restaurants, while The Hawthorn Hotel is offering $3 meals for all hospitality workers affected by the lockdown.
Lindsay said he hoped the themed banquets would draw attention to the situation of international workers across the industry.
“I’ve got guys who have worked for me for years, paid tax all that time. The dollar figure on giving them Jobkeeper for a few months, the total cost to the government, is not really a lot of money in the scheme of things,” he said. “Three kids I sponsored (over the years) have gone on to own their own restaurants. If we were to lose a fair percentage of the ones who are here at the moment, it doesn’t augur well for the next generation of diners and chefs that’s for sure.”
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