Taste stalls promised pay

TASTE of Tasmania stallholders should have outstanding money from the festival paid from Friday, says the Hobart City Council.

Taste of Tasmania 2015/16 pictured is the new cashless system in use - someone being served.

TASTE  of Tasmania stallholders should have outstanding money from the festival paid from Friday, says the Hobart City Council.

In a letter to stallholders, Acting Lord Mayor Ron Christie said software provider Black Label would provide the council and stallholders with transaction statements by ­tomorrow, with payments owing processed by Friday.

“As part of this reporting, we will divulge to all stallholders the gross amount paid to the council raised by the variable proportion of the stallholder licence fee, that being 10 per cent of gross stallholder turnover,” the letter read.

Alderman Christie’s letter was in response to a letter from 39 stallholders yesterday which cited numerous and widespread discrepancies that ranged from $1200 to $4500 between transactions and settlements.

Stallholders questioned the traceability of data, queried the viability of swapping terminals and described loss of sales because of connectivity failures and voided transactions.

As part of its attempt to make the festival cost neutral, the council voted in July to make the Taste a cashless event and to adopt the Commonwealth Bank’s wireless ­Albert system via touchscreen tablets for transactions.

However, Hejo’s Restau­rant stallholder Fei “Tony” He yesterday labelled the system “terrible” and said issues with it had worsened over the seven days of the festival.

“We were told the wrong ­instructions [from the Commonwealth Bank] on how to make transactions, which ­resulted in us losing money — we were giving away free food to customers,” Mr He said.

“The system is not easy to operate and is not designed for a big event — it’s only for small retail shops.”

Stall supplier Greg Milligan said the lack of cash flow had flow-on effects.

“It got to the point where my ute had the fuel warning light on and I didn’t have any money for petrol, so a stallholder was able to give me some cash owed to go part way towards it so I could get to my other jobs,” Mr Milligan said.

Alderman Marti Zucco said the Albert system was “thrown at us at the last minute”.

But Ald Christie said the ­decision to use Albert was based on qualified advice.