Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Amandalina Letterio

Labour Market

Hospitality industry struggles to find staff due to fluctuating COVID-19 restrictions

Jul 20, 2021 | 4:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — British Columbia has been in Stage 3 of its reopening plan for almost a month, and it’s keeping the hospitality industry busy.

With no group limits on indoor and outdoor dining — Kamloops restaurants are struggling to find staff.

“At first, it was the COVID relief money because people were making $2,000 to stay at home, so why would they bother coming into work?” said Janette Roos, manager at Frankly Coffee and Bistro.

“It’s just the insecurity of not knowing because we’ve been shut down so many times and we’ve been cut on hours, so the stability isn’t there…” she continued.

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Roos told CFJC News that Frankly Coffee and Bistro gets a lot of applicants for servers, but when she calls them to book an interview, “They either don’t show up or it just doesn’t happen. People just aren’t interested in coming into work,” she continued.

Restaurants aren’t the only ones who are struggling to find staff since COVID restrictions eased, the entire hospitality industry is facing the same issue — and it’s not just a local problem.

“There’s tens of thousands of available jobs in this industry, both in our province and nationally. It’s a massive, massive shortage right now. We’ve had a lot of people who have left. It’s a real dire situation and will be for the next few years as I suspect, as a lot of people have left the industry and hotels are trying to recover,” explained Bryan Pilbeam, chair of the BC Hotels Association.

However, one downtown restaurant was able to keep all of its staff throughout the entire pandemic.

Owner at Papa G’s, Gerald Thiessen said he was able to keep his employees on a reduced hours basis.

“I applied for the circuit breaker grant three times from the B.C. government and they denied me three times, for the same reasons all three times. I gave them everything they wanted and it still wasn’t good enough, but we managed to keep our head above water,” Thiessen added.

As COVID-19 travel restrictions loosen, Canada could see American tourists by next month which means the hospitality industry could get even busier. If that’s the case, Roos hopes diners will understand.

“We just don’t have the people to fill the void. People are just going to have to be patient; people are just going to have to wait because we do the best we can,” said Roos.