Scottish Hospitality Group spokesman, Stephen Montgomery, has warned that bar and nightclub staff could lose up to £200 a week if their premises are forced to close early due to the SNP’s vaccine passport regulations.
In a letter to the Scottish Conservatives, Montgomery highlighted the recruitment crisis in the sector, which has left many pubs and bars unable to find staff to implement the SNP Government’s scheme.
Where venues are unable to enforce vaccine passport checks, they must close by midnight or risk prosecution under the new regulations.
According to the Scottish Hospitality Group, this has left many hospitality workers missing out on up to three hours of wages each night - the equivalent of £200 per week.
This has been made worse by the SNP’s ‘inaccurate and unreasonable’ definition of a nightclub - which has affected approximately 2000 Scottish businesses, despite the fact that only around 120 of these would traditionally be viewed as nightclubs by the public.
In the letter, Stephen Montgomery stressed that he had written to Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, Kate Forbes and Minister for Business, Ivan McKee, about his concerns last week, but had yet to receive a reply.
Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for COVID Recovery, Murdo Fraser said: “This figure throws into sharp relief the real harms that the SNP’s disastrous vaccine passport scheme is doing to Scottish hospitality businesses and workers.
“The SNP’s handling of the vaccine passport scheme has been farcical, but we must not forget its devastating financial impact on hardworking Scots.
“The SNP has pressed ahead with an inaccurate and unreasonable ‘nightclub’ definition, which has captured thousands of pubs and bars that do not have the staff or the capacity to carry out these checks.
“These venues now have no choice but to close early and lose out on hours of revenue, costing their staff dearly.
“The SNP Government has introduced a de facto curfew on these businesses - yet they have refused to even acknowledge the financial damage their scheme is doing, let alone offer financial support for workers and businesses.
“The SNP must urgently fix or scrap this unreasonable and shambolic policy, or risk ruining even more Scottish livelihoods.”
Notes:
The Scottish Conservatives called on the SNP to fix their ‘fundamentally flawed’ vaccine passport scheme on Wednesday 13 October. Scottish Conservative Shadow Finance and Economy Secretary Liz Smith stressed that implementing significant practical changes to the SNP’s plans, could help mitigate some of the harms of the policy. The Scottish Conservatives remain fundamentally opposed to the introduction of the vaccine passport scheme but proposed the following changes to allow venues and businesses to avoid the worst of the potential damage:
- Revising the definition of a nightclub to include only those late-night venues which remain open after 2am and are already likely to have trained door staff, as proposed by the Scottish Hospitality Group.
- Introducing a spot-check system in bars and nightclubs, rather than checking everyone.
- Significantly reducing the percentage of attendees that must be spot-checked at large events.
- Delaying the introduction of the scheme until at least after the new year, to allow businesses and sports venues time to properly prepare for these burdensome checks, and to support Scotland’s economic recovery in the run up to the festive season.
Stephen Montgomery, spokesman for the Scottish Hospitality Group described his concerns in a letter to Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, Wednesday 20 October 2021: “I am just wishing to drop you a quick email regarding the concerns which I have following the start of the enforcement of Covid Certification on venues including those captured by the new "nightclub" definition.
“We are in the midst of a recruitment pandemic within the hospitality sector, where we are frantically trying to recruit staff for our primary positions within the business to allow them to function properly.
“Many have taken the decision to close some days during the week, whilst others have chosen to open in the evenings and weekends, and all in an effort to keep business afloat in the key times, and many still struggling to hit the break-even point.
“The introduction of the Covid certification has now added further recruitment issues, as we now need to have door staff on to check these on the customers entry to the premises. There are approx. 2000 businesses now captured with the new definition of "nightclub", where previously there were around 120 nightclubs as we would have known in the true meaning of the word.
“This now means that for the larger percentage of those now captured, who would have previously operated to 2am or 1am without the need for door staff as a condition of license, now find themselves shipwrecked or hung out to dry because they are now unable to recruit for that position to enable them to remain open.
“This has now meant that by default they are being forced to close at midnight, and not only does the business suffer financially, but to my main point, the forgotten issue of our fantastic staff now having their hours cut, in some cases by 3 hours per night.
“This is leaving them at a financial loss of on average £150 to £200 per week, without any financial help from the Scottish Government. This in the run up to Christmas, rising energy prices, and normal extra winter costs is something that I feel passionately and strongly about, and something which I think needs addressed for the care and wellbeing of our staff.
“I have written to Kate Forbes and Ivan McKee on this point on 14th October, and to date I have had no reply.
It would, or should be an expectation that if a policy is put in place which will have a negative effect on those it applies to, then would it not be fair to say that those affected should be financially supported? This should not be a political point, just a point of decency and respect shown to those affected by it.
“I think we sometimes get too tied up in the business aspect of financial losses, and whilst that has a massive part to play, our staff are the backbone of our businesses, and need supported through this.
“If there is no financial help available for either businesses or staff affected, then surely this adds good reason and grounds to either shelve this policy, or move it to 2am, where we know that door staff are employed, and which falls into the true definition of a nightclub?
“Again I appreciate your time in reading this, and I hope we are able to see support come the way of our staff for the hard months ahead, driven by the introduction of this policy.”