A Perth pub manager says he is struggling to fill job vacancies at the venue due to JobSeeker.
Max Fox-Andrews, the manager of the Windsor Hotel in South Perth, told Sunrise he would normally receive up to 400 applications for bartending, waitressing and chef roles in the lead up to the busy Christmas period.
But this year he’s received barely any for the six roles he has available and he’s blaming it on people prefering to receive the $1100 a fortnight JobSeeker payments than work.
“Usually we wouldn’t have a problem encouraging staff to come and work for us,” Fox-Andrews (above) said. “But what we’ve seen is a decline in applications and a decline in decent staff with experience apply to us. It’s been a tough run.
“We are seeing an element of people not wanting to work because the money is slightly better with JobSeeker.”
Fox-Andrews said he was trying “every single angle” to encourage applications.
“We’ve got the usual suspects such as social media, Seek, Indeed, but also we use word-of-mouth,” he said.
“I even offer a cash-incentive to our existing employees of $250 if a person will stay with us for over three months.”
The National Skills Commission’s regular survey of more than 1100 businesses showed last week that of those hiring, 47% said they were having difficulty getting workers, up from 28% in early August.
Last Friday, Treasury released information showing that the Australian Taxation Office had received a total of 8000 tip-offs about the misuse of JobKeeper. The ATO received 628 tip-offs on cafes and restaurant businesses followed by 286 tip-offs in the hairdressing and beauty services.
Laundy Hotels group battles to fill pub shifts
In June, Craig Laundy revealed the Laundy Hotels group was struggling to fill shifts in its pubs due to JobKeeper.
The former Liberal frontbencher said some staff would rather stay at home on the $1500-a-fortnight JobKeeper allowance than work.
“There is a minority that it makes sense for them not to work and they’ve been taking the Mickey.”
Laundy told news.com.au that some people who refused to turn up to their shifts were obtaining sick leave certificates to protect their jobs.
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