NSW Minister for Hospitality and Racing Kevin Anderson has joined with key stakeholders to ensure the staffing crisis facing the hospitality sector is a priority at the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra.
Mr Anderson said the hospitality sector was one of the hardest hit by the COVID pandemic and as we look to the future, solving the staffing crisis must be a priority.
\u201cI welcome the Jobs and Skills Summit being held in Canberra and am calling on the Commonwealth Government and all in attendance to address the staffing issue in hospitality as a matter of priority,\u201d Mr Anderson said.
\u201cThese businesses suffered the most during the COVID pandemic and now, as the community is regaining the confidence to return to venues, we need to find a solution to issues around staffing and empower them to stay open and continue serving their communities.\u201d
Australian Hotels Association NSW CEO John Whelan said the hospitality sector in NSW has been suffering from worker shortages.
\u201cThere\u2019s been a chronic shortage of hospitality workers in NSW for a long time – and that\u2019s only been exacerbated by the pandemic,\u201d Mr Whelan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good to see the issue on the national agenda after years of inaction and particularly pleasing to see the AHA representing the hotel sector at the summit.\u201d
Clubs NSW CEO Josh Landis said worker shortages are hurting clubs in NSW.
\u201cThere are tens of thousands of vacant hospitality jobs across the country and the worker shortage is having a devastating impact on not-for-profit clubs,\u201d Mr Landis said.
\u201cClubs are crying out for workers, with many having to close their restaurants or alter their opening hours because they simply don\u2019t have enough staff to operate at full capacity.
\u201cThis matter is urgent and it requires decisive action by the Federal Government. Overseas job seekers should be allowed to complete their application and appointment process prior to arriving in Australia in order to provide relief to hospitality businesses, fast.
\u201cWhile we welcome this week\u2019s jobs and skills summit, if we don\u2019t find a solution to get workers here soon, it will have been for nothing.\u201d
Restaurants and Caterers Association CEO Belinda Clarke staffing shortages are hurting the hospitality sector and called on the Summit to address the issue.
\u201cThe Jobs and Skills Summit needs to come back with practical solutions that will alleviate one of the worst staffing shortages this country has faced in decades,\u201d Ms Clarke said.
\u201cWhilst we\u2019re concerned about the lack of hospitality voices at the summit, we are all still hoping that there will be more action than talk when it comes to tackling this enormous skills and staffing crisis the industry faces.
\u201cWe will need to see more support for local jobs as well more support for people looking to come to this country from overseas to work here or we will risk losing more and more businesses and all the problems that brings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NSW Minister for Hospitality and Racing Kevin Anderson has joined with key stakeholders to ensure the staffing crisis facing the hospitality sector is a priority at the upcoming Jobs and Skills Summit in Canberra. Mr Anderson said the hospitality sector was one of the hardest hit by the COVID pandemic and as we look to … Continue reading “NSW Government calls on Jobs and Skills Summit to prioritise hospitality”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18037,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18036\/revisions\/18037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}