"The States have let hospitality down so much"

Wednesday 08 August 2018

A local pub manager, who has had to close down its kitchen after he couldn't find a chef, has hit out at the States for "letting hospitality down" by restricting their ability to hire skilled staff, while granting licences to the finance industry, and themselves.

The Lamplighter closed its kitchen until further notice on Monday after Sean Murphy spent a month looking for a chef, amid what he describes as the worst recruitment shortage he has ever seen.

Mr Murphy has been at the head of the Mulcaster Street pub for 15 years and in hospitality for 40 years. He says this year is the worst he has ever seen in terms of recruitment. While his team used to count nine full-time staff, it is now down to five. Three of his chefs left in the space of a month and he is also looking for extra bar staff.

"I have been looking for a chef for nearly a month, since my chef gave his notice," he told Express. "I have had one person get in touch and that was from the UK so I couldn't interview them because I don't have a licence. I applied for a licence two years ago and it was declined. 

"This is not a licence issue and it is not just us. There is just not staff around. Hospitality as a whole is affected, we need front-of-house staff, kitchen porters; the whole workforce is low. If the States made it easier for us to look further afield, it would help a lot."

With no staff available to fill the position in the kitchen, Mr Murphy has had to take the decision to close the kitchen. On Monday, he put out a sign outside the pub which said "Due to the lack of qualified chefs and general hospitality workers on island, we're sorry but our kitchen is now closed until the situation changes." The pub manager says the kitchen will probably not reopen until the next season, probably in February or March next year.

"I am not even bothered," he explained. "It is just too difficult to find staff. I can't open and close the kitchen all the time. We did it in the past and it didn't work. Customers want consistency and we have no guarantee that the next chef that comes on will stay. We will remain closed until the job market stabilises. I admit it is a bit of pride on my side too but we just can't go on like this."

Last year, Population Office 'constraints' on new staff were cited as one of the causes of a popular local pizza chain having to close one of its stores last year.  This year, the owners of two new coffee shops – Cargo and Lockes – reported recruitment difficulties. Both were denied permissions for non-local staff and struggled to source suitably qualified Jersey people.

Pictured: Sean Murphy has been at the head of the Lamplighter for 15 years.

Writing on the pub's Facebook page about the closure, Mr Murphy said: "And before anyone says we should pay more we were giving a fair wage for a small pub which was trying to offer good food at a reasonable cost, alas we can no longer do this." "Everybody deserves a decent wage and we always paid that to our staff," he explained. "But you can only do so up to your limits. We are a small business and with a shortage we can't compete with larger employers who charge more for their food and drinks."

The closure of the kitchen couldn't come at a worst time for the Lamplighter. The weeks leading up to and following Battle of Flowers are the 'bread and butter' of the pub as tourists come to the island to see the parade. The loss of business incurred will likely cost the pub thousands said Mr Murphy. But his suppliers will also be affected as he won't be ordering. "It is the whole ladder," says Mr Murphy. "Everyone gets affected, at different levels."

Mr Murphy says that since he put the sign up outside the Lamplighter, he has received lots of support from the public. "Most of them were shocked to hear the situation was bad. Some of them knew we were struggling, but they had no idea how much. I was personally surprised to hear that in Guernsey, they are in exactly in the same predicament as us."

The pub manager is however worried that tourists are starting to pick up on the situation too. He says that last night he received some who had eaten in the pub last week and couldn't understand why they couldn't get food just a few days after. "We explained the situation and they were a bit surprised. Some others have said they have noticed that in other places, staff is running like mad because there is not a lot of people on the ground.

"I hope they won't go back and talk about how bad the situation is. I don't want that for the island, I love Jersey and I really hope this gets addressed before tourists start noticing more how much we are struggling." 

Mr Murphy says the States, and the restrictions they imposed around licensed staff are responsible, for the situation hospitality finds itself in. While the industry is struggling - it saw 169 work permits withdrawn, a forced downsizing of around 3%, in 2017 - latest Population Office figures showed that every one of the government's 38 applications for licensed employees succeeded in 2017. No other work sector – including finance, the island’s largest industry – had 100% of its work permit requests accepted throughout the year. 

Pictured: Every one of the government's 38 applications for licensed employees succeeded in 2017.

"That five-years thing doesn't work for us," Mr Murphy said. "I understand why they do it because we need to control the population. We are only a small island and we can't go on and on like this. I just wished they reintroduced work permits. I feel the States have let us (hospitality) down so much. Finance always get licences, the States look after them. But they have left us alone, we're second-class citizens and they just don't care about us.

"I left school to train at Highlands and I am so frustrated at how the island has changed. Hospitality was great, the island was buoyant. I appreciate we might never get the numbers that we had before but Visit Jersey is doing a good job of bringing tourists in. What happens when they come here and there is nothing open? We are already losing hotels because they can't find staff, we don't want to lose bars and restaurants too.

"This needs to be addressed soon," Mr Murphy continues. "Not just for us but for the next generation too. We want hospitality to continue. We don't want to go down the route the UK is on, where something like 18 pubs closed in a week."