Amending the JobKeeper payment to include casual workers who have been employed for less than 12 months will be crucial to business recovery, Ballarat hospitality business owners and industry leaders say.
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Provincial Hotel owner Simon Coghlan and Committee for Ballarat are advocating to government for JobKeeper eligibility to be amended.
Mr Coghlan said hospitality businesses like his needed their full casual workforce 'back on deck' to get restaurants running again, particularly as restrictions were gradually eased.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to make an announcement on Monday about how the state will move forward.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday announced a three-step plan to left restrictions, beginning with stage one, which all states can implement at their discretion.
The first stage allows for the reopening of restaurants, cafes and shopping centres, but with a caveat of a maximum of 10 people at time in those businesses.
Mr Coghlan said he needed all casual staff members back at work to re-open the restaurant, but would not be able to afford to pay them with restrictions on the number of diners.
"At the moment I have only got full-timers and a couple of casuals on JobKeeper, but I have probably six to 10 people who don't qualify who I am not going to be able to afford to re-employ straight away because of the restrictions in the way we re-open," he said.
"When you can only have a certain number of people in your venue, you can only create a certain amount of revenue.... But it will be a situation where we will need a certain number of staff to be open.
"As a business we are very grateful and acknowledge that JobKeeper has been an absolute lifeline to businesses. But I think across the board most people acknowledge it is not a perfect system and there is plenty of room for improvements."
The JobKeeper payment was designed to protect workers whose businesses could not afford to keep them on, but casual workers employed less than 12 months have fallen through the cracks of the scheme.
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Many hospitality workers fall into this category, due to the transient and casualised nature of the industry.
The United Workers Union found 68 per cent of hospitality workers were ineligible for JobKeeper, according to a survey of almost 550 people.
Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said the government needed to review its 'all or nothing' approach to JobKeeper.
He said JobKeeper payments for casual workers who have been employed for less than 12 months could be scaled to reflect their regular working arrangements, rather than the full $1500 per fortnight payment.
"Under this approach of all or nothing, I might be working two shifts a week as a casual earning $500 a week, but JobKeeper gives me $750 a week," Mr Poulton said.
"If I don't qualify for JobKeeper, I get zero, so it is far better that I get a proportion of that $750, half at $325 even, as opposed to nothing.
"The aim here is to maintain contact between staff and their employer and keep those individuals out of the social security system.
"This has got full support of the key leaders around town, from the tourism industry, Commerce Ballarat and local government."
Mr Coghlan has written to Senator Sarah Henderson and Mr Poulton will advocate to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan for the amendment to JobKeeper eligibility.
Commerce Ballarat chief executive Jodie Gillett said 'any concept that will assist hospitality in their recovery is important to consider'.
"It is very hard to judge when and where the recovery will really start, but obviously as businesses are open longer and the economy starts to kick in we certainly hope to see more employment opportunities," she said.
"It is going to be really slow and it is going to be a really difficult time for businesses to get back on their feet."
Ms Gillett said business were also confused about their occupational health and safety obligations in regards to staff members being tested for COVID-19.
She encouraged business owners who may have questions or issues to contact Commerce Ballarat for support.
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