“Staff wanted”. It is the almost ubiquitous sign in the windows of cafés, pubs and restaurants across Australia, particularly outside the major city centres.
Ahead of this week’s jobs summit, hospitality - long marked by low pay and wage theft - has a set of its own distinct issues. Census data from 2016 showed it was among the industries most reliant on temporary migrant workers before the pandemic. Today, with 500,000 fewer students and backpackers in Australia, the crunch is particularly severe. It is unclear how that will be resolved anytime soon absent a rapid increase in international students or pay-rises.
“Even when we opened up [after lockdowns], the pressures we were facing were with people going down with illness, and that put a lot of pressure on the people who were already working at a busy restaurant.” Yet hospitality, which employs about 900,000 people, is diverse. It ranges from often struggling cafés and smaller restaurants to giant hotel and pub empires that can make hefty profits.A worker from one of Sydney’s giant clubs, Dave, who preferred not to name his current employer to protect himself from repercussions, said the pandemic opened up options for hospitality workers.
benschneiders BillieEder Because the staff can't afford to live anywhere near the job, public transport stops at midnight and the dishpigs and wait staff can't get home to Penrith.
benschneiders BillieEder Because they can't afford to pay their staff a living wage. While the landlords drive Teslas.