Hospitality industry on the brink of crisis
The hospitality industry is now struggling to attract talent.
While so many young people take a job in hospitality while studying, most don’t want to pursue it as a career, even as a stepping stone.
There are too many issues with working weekends and public holidays for slashed penalty rates and increasingly disinterested customers.
Research from Edith Cowan University’s Dr Edmund Goh found the industry now has a 28 per cent vacancy rate with older people retiring and the younger generation refusing to fill the vacancies.
In 2017 hospitality software provide Impos did a survey of the industry and found that more than half the businesses it spoke to had difficulty hiring and retaining staff.
The Employment Department says 19,000 more roles will be needed between 2015 and 2020,
It’s a problem with Australia continuing to attract tourists and building infrastructure.
This is the big issue now in Brisbane where projects along the city’s river, including at Queen’s Wharf and Howard Smith Wharves and the proposed concert venue Brisbane Live, will guarantee 9000 more new jobs, and most of these will fall into the tourism and hospitality sector.
To examine what’s happening, Brisbane hosted the World Tourism Forum.
Forum chief executive Martin Barth says it’s about making hospitality “sexy” again.
“The image of working within the tourism industry has changed,” Barth told the Brisbane Times.
“A poor salary and long hours may be right, but there are also business and international opportunities, so let’s tell that story and show the world how interesting the industry is.
“It’s not just long hours and weekends, let’s see what is important to the young generation and see what we need to do to make it sexy and attractive for them.”
One of the big issues is pay with the Fair Work Commission slashing penalty rates.
Maddy McCormack, who has worked in the hospitality industry for six years including at restaurants in NSW and Victoria, says not getting paid much is a given.
“I don’t get paid penalty rates and the only time I received some extra pay was because when I was told I was working Anzac Day, I asked my boss, ‘What will my public holiday rates be?’” McCormack told news.com.au.
“She said she’d check with her bookkeeper and I was paid a few extra dollars per hour. I don’t know if anyone else got the same.
“On Mother’s Day we all worked 12 hours straight because we had tables coming in all day — no break or time to stop and eat something.
“Sometimes on a weekend, they’ll pay you your pay for the week even when you’re still working. How can they clock me out when I’m still working?”
Leon Getler 23rd May 2018.
