A major national survey of hospitality workers has revealed how COVID-19 ripped wide open the rotten foundations on which the hospitality industry is built, with the hospitality union vowing to use the Federal Government\u2019s IR Working Group process to fight extreme levels of casualisation.<\/p>\n
Hospo Voice, the United Workers Union\u2019s digital union for hospitality workers, has released data today from its nationwide #RebuildHospo Survey with 1158 hospitality workers*. The data shows insecure employment, combined with endemic wage theft, acted as a force-multiplier when the industry collapsed on 23 March 2020.<\/p>\n
United Workers Union National President Jo-anne Schofield, who sits on Christian Porter\u2019s IR Working Group on casualisation, says it was a \u201cnational disgrace\u201d 78 per cent of hospitality workers are casual, the highest rate for any group of workers (ABS 2019 Data**).<\/p>\n
The survey shows workers experienced extreme levels of financial distress when the pandemic forced the industry into shutdown overnight. Hospo Voice says these impacts on workers are directly linked to casualisation:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The survey also found that when the pandemic struck 47.5 per cent of hospitality workers had less than a month\u2019s savings in the bank to cover rent, food and bills.<\/p>\n A key contributor to the low pay and consequential low savings of hospitality workers is wage theft, with 82 per cent of those surveyed having been affected by wage theft. Workers reported the following examples:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the last three years Hospo Voice helped lift the lid on major wage theft scandals including those with celebrity chefs Shannon Bennett, George Calombaris and Neil Perry. The union warmly welcomed Victoria\u2019s new wage theft laws and vowed to campaign for similar laws from coast to coast.<\/p>\n Comments attributable to Jo-anne Schofield, National President United Workers Union:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cInsecure work is the elephant in the room in the hospitality sector – it supercharges this industry\u2019s other biggest issues, like wage theft and sexual harassment.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got no job security, who\u2019s going to speak up about being ripped off, or a safe respectful workplace?<\/p>\n \u201c<\/strong>And of course when something like COVID-19 strikes, if you\u2019re casual it means you can be plunged into poverty overnight – which is exactly what happened for countless workers.<\/p>\n \u201cCOVID-19 has torn wide open the rotten foundations on which this industry is built. Now, as the hospitality industry reopens, this is one of the top issues our members want to address. It\u2019s time to rebuild the hospitality industry to be better and fairer.<\/p>\n \u201cWithout hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers being stood aside, we would not have been able to cope with the public health crisis. It\u2019s time to repay our debt to these workers so they can avoid further hardship.<\/p>\n \u201cHospo workers deserve jobs they can count on, and our members are going to fight like hell to make sure the Federal Government tackles this issue head on.\u201d<\/p>\n Comments attributable to Claudia Levi, Queensland-based cafe worker and Hospo Voice member:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe cafe I worked for had been underpaying me over two and a half years. I missed out on weekend and public holiday rates and I was paid below the legal hourly minimum. I worked out they owed me at least $18,000.<\/p>\n \u201cThat wage theft meant that when Covid hit I didn\u2019t have that money to fall back on. You start to realise how much you are owed and how much you missed out on and how hospitality employers have been taking advantage of their staff.<\/p>\n \u201cCovid really opened my eyes to just how insecure all our jobs are in hospitality. With casual employment you have to stay silent about wage theft and about abuse and sexual harassment or you will have no job.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need more permanent jobs in the industry, so we have more security and real rights we can enforce.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ENDS<\/strong><\/p>\n *Hospo Voice\u2019s #RebuildHospo Survey was conducted online with 1158\u00a0 hospitality workers across Australia in early June, 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n **2019 ABS figures show 77.9% of ‘hospitality workers\u2019 are casuals.<\/em> https:\/\/www.abs.gov.au\/ausstats\/abs@.nsf\/Previousproducts\/B01ACCD5C5C23B22CA2575DF002DA5AA?opendocument<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
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