Many Long Beach restaurants are having difficulties getting employees to come back to work when they still can get unemployment and worry about their health. | By Coolcaesar/Wikimedia Commons
Many Long Beach restaurants are having difficulties getting employees to come back to work when they still can get unemployment and worry about their health. | By Coolcaesar/Wikimedia Commons
Restaurant owners who faced closures and economic challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic have an unforeseen problem because many of the employees they laid off don't want to come back to work.
Some said they’d rather not return to work because they are making more through unemployment payments. Others fear getting sick as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
“I think there are valid concerns by employees that are afraid,” Carl Dene, owner of Michael’s On Naples, told the Long Beach Business Journal in May. “But I also think there are a lot of people potentially using … this bonus unemployment as an excuse to not go back to work.”
Dene received a loan through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) that was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). He attempted to hire all of his employees back when his restaurant could reopen. But more than 25 of his 50 employees declined to come back, the Business Journal reported. That meant that Dene couldn’t shift his business to offer delivery service in the Naples area.
“Their job was being a server in a fine dining restaurant, that’s what they want to do, but they can’t do that right now,” Dene told the Business Journal. “I really don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel anytime soon.”
The additional $600 a week is from the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, which runs through July 25, the U.S. Department of Labor said on its website.
The PPP loans can be forgiven if recipients bring on staff to the same level as they had before the layoffs, and use at least 75 percent of the loan for payroll expenses, the Business Journal reported.
The 908, a restaurant at Long Beach Exchange, also received a PPP loan. Co-owner Todd Miller told the Business Journal they have another hurdle with social distancing requirements that won’t allow them to open at full capacity.
"In our industry, it’s not always certain what you’re going to be taking home each week,” Jessica Velez, a server from The 908, told the Business Journal. “Obviously, we want to stay safe. If there’s any way to not go back, having less risk of getting sick, that’s ideal.”
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