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“People buy food, drinks, have other services provided such as dry-cleaning and buy clothes and gifts or do leisure experiences such as go to the movies or galleries and without the people in there those businesses that provide those sorts of things have got dramatically declined revenue,” Mr Lang said. “Many businesses would be receiving JobKeeper and have issues with unpaid rent and so they are on their knees.” He said multiple changes recently to workplace capacity numbers created uncertainty for businesses relying on workers coming back. Late on Wednesday evening Premier Daniel Andrews announced he would be pausing the amount of workers returning to the office after one case of COVID-19 spread from a tennis hotel quarantine hotel into the community. This has left private sector workers operating up to 50 per cent capacity in the office and just 25 per cent capacity for public sector workers. The Australian Industry Group’s Victorian head Tim Piper said businesses are “working with employees to make sure they are comfortable” in transitioning back to the office. “Forcing people to come to work when they don’t feel comfortable about it is not going to solve the problem,” he said. “Employers are keen to get people back to the office and many workers tell us they want to return. “We need to make sure within the workplace things are as safe as possible and public transport is safe, which it is.”Mr Piper said there’s a “new norm” where people work both from home and in the office.Shadow Minister for Finance Matthew Guy said, “the Andrews Government is providing no policy certainty and that is giving Victorian businesses mixed messages to whether employers can return their staff to the office”. “Random closures of border and random policy decisions every second day is destroying confidence in the Victorian economy,” he said.“We want to see the same number of public sector workers back as private sector workers at work and at the moment that is not the case.”Last month Lord Mayor Sally Capp urged workers to return to the city. “The City of Melbourne is encouraging all businesses, big and small, to start bringing their workers back to the office safely,” she said.
CHIN CHIN OWNER: ‘AN ECONOMIC ARMAGEDDON’
RESTAURANT owner Chris Lucas said January was his worst trading period in 35 years. The 60-year-old said he’s extremely worried about the uncertainty that lies ahead, particularly as many people continue to work from home. “There’s an economic armageddon coming on March 31 and under the current scenario where they can shut borders, have this state of emergency which zaps confidence and change rules at the drop of the hat if there’s one case, it erodes the ability for us to run our businesses,” he said. “The only reason there hasn’t been mass job losses in hospitality is because of JobKeeper.” Mr Lucas runs 8 restaurants across Melbourne and Sydney including popular eatery Chin Chin and has 1100 staff. The business owner said it’s “almost impossible” to plan ahead as the rules keep changing to get workers back in the office. “I’m worried that we will have at least another year of this will result in mass unemployment and further bankruptcies,” Mr Lucas said. Restaurants can only operate to 50 per cent capacity as they are forced to abide by the 1 person per 2 sqm rule.
sophie.elsworth@news.com.au
@sophieelsworth
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