Quarter of Australian restaurants and cafes would like option of not serving unvaccinated customers
Up to half of Australia’s restaurants have said they are concerned about diners who haven’t had a jab, with many open to banning them.
EXCLUSIVE
More than half of Australian restaurant and cafe owners say they are “concerned” about serving unvaccinated customers if Covid-19 was eventually to run rife and a quarter want the option to refuse service to the unvaxxed.
The prospect of unvaccinated Australians not being able to pop out for a feed is one of a number of findings in a snapshot of the nation’s hospitality industry that also found less than half of restaurants were positive about the immediate future of the industry.
The Hospovitality Index Report from food delivery firm Deliveroo found a huge lack of staff was the number one issue for the industry.
One cafe owner in Melbourne told news.com.au it had taken him a month to find a barista and in some cases he’d been forced to up wages to get skilled people on-board.
Restaurants, cafes ‘uncertain about the future’
Overall confidence in the hospitality industry has fallen since the same survey in January, but it’s still higher than August 2020 when Melbourne was in its mega-lockdown.
But Deliveroo Australia chief executive officer Ed McManus told news.com.au that the current research was done prior to any of the recent lockdowns which at one point saw restaurants closed for in person dining in three capitals.
“There’s been a decline in confidence but if surveyed right now things would be even worse,” he said.
“It’s been a very difficult situation for operators both financially and from a mental health standpoint and when I speak to restaurant owners the major thing I’m hearing is even with growing vaccination rates there is uncertainty about the future.”
Option to not serve the unvaxxed
A notable finding from the report, which was produced after feedback from 439 Deliveroo restaurant operators countrywide, was that 53 per cent of outlets were concerned about serving unvaccinated customers and 24 per cent would like the option to not serve anyone who had not been vaccinated should there be a future outbreak.
Currently, only 14 per cent of Australians have had two jabs. But an eventual plan by the government is that restrictions will be lessened once vaccination rates rise high enough – a move that will inevitability lead to the virus circulating.
“It’s not really a surprise that some people working in that frontline might want the confidence to know that the person they’re serving has had two shots,” said Mr McManus.
“Everyone’s talking about a vaccine passport for travel to different countries but is there a version of the vaccine passport that allows you to go to sporting events where there’ll be crowds or to attend a restaurant?
“Those are not questions for today, because right now we need to get the vaccination rates up, but that’s something I think we will need to consider as a society.”
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Morgan Hipworth of Melbourne’s Bistro Morgan, which is known for its precariously stacked doughnuts with indulgent fillings like crème brulee or Kinder Bueno cheesecake, told news.com.au it wasn’t something he’d looked at but asking people for proof of vaccination could be something some restaurants might consider in the future.
However, the pastry wunderkind, who opened his Windsor bakehouse five years ago when he was just 15, said it would be tricky to enforce because even now some people refuse to wear masks or even sign in via their phone.
“It’s a very fine line between showing respect to the customer and also ensuring that we’re trying to follow the health advice,” he said.
“I would imagine the vaccination situation would be on a very similar line.”
Mr Hipworth said that would put staff be at the mercy of obstreperous customers.
“I had one staff member who told a customer they couldn’t serve them if they didn’t check in and the customer started yelling and saying she was going to sue us and then I got a call from the staff member in tears,” he said.
Wages up as industry struggle to find staff
However, his biggest current worry was something more immediate – a lack of staff. Indeed, the Deliveroo survey found 59 per cent of restaurants said the availability of staff was their number one issue.
Key to that was that many positions were taken up by either students and backpackers or skilled staff from overseas.
“Covid has really cut off that supply of staff and we’ve found it harder than ever to get new staff,” said Mr Hipworth.
At one point Bistro Morgan, which usually has 15 staff, had only two thirds of the employees it needed forcing Mr Morgan to work more hours to take up the slack.
“It took me a month to fill the position of a barista. And finding a baker was one of the hardest positions to fill because the majority were international,” he said.
“We had to offer above award wages because we just needed someone.”
Employment website Seek stated it had almost 50,000 hospitality jobs available in May on its site alone. Deliveroo’s Mr McManus had said he had heard there were now up to 100,000 positions in the industry going vacant.
The businesses that were currently succeeding, said Mr McManus, were those that were making delivery a core part of their offer.
“You go back three years and delivery was probably just an add-on to a restaurant’s business and many owners didn’t change anything about what they did,” he said.
“Now what we’re starting to observe is that restaurant owners who have really embraced delivery are changing their set up which can be simple things like a separate entrance for riders to come and collect or recognising some foods deliver better than other.”
The pandemic, Mr McManus said, had only increased this trend.
But in the end, the way out for the industry was the same as everyone else.
“Our vibrant restaurant culture is such a big part of Australia,” he said.
“I think it’s almost a patriotic to get vaccinated, as soon as you can.
“And that’s the best chance we have to open up our economy, and get back to the thriving restaurant sector that we all know and love.”