Turnover rises at 50% of restaurants

By Niamh Hennessy

Monday, September 12, 2011

ALMOST half of restaurants have seen their business increase turnover in the last eight months compared with the previous year, a survey has found.

In addition, almost 94% of restaurants said they have passed on the recent VAT reduction.

The top two issues affecting restaurants surveyed were wages costs (81.8%) and local authority charges (60.1%), according to the Restaurants Association of Ireland.

Restaurants have created 490 jobs in the two months since the abolition of the Joint Labour Committee Employment Regulation Order.

Of these, 270 jobs were created in individual restaurants; 150 in McDonalds; and 70 in Eddie Rockets.

Almost two-thirds of people surveyed said that the abolishing of the Joint Labour Committee Employment Regulation Order was a factor in hiring new staff.

In July, the High Court ruled that the Joint Labour Committee (JLC) system of setting wages for lower paid workers was unconstitutional.

In the survey 92.5% of respondents said that government proposals to re-establish the JLCs in the autumn would affect the employment potential of their business.

Restaurants Association of Ireland chief executive Adrian Cummins said the "positive measures in the jobs initiative and the decisive way in which the Government has moved to support the tourism sector, boost confidence is getting people back to work".

He said: "The major factor in the last two months for job creation is the abolishing of the Joint Labour Committees Employment Regulation Order. Any attempts to re-establish these anti-business, anti-employer and anti-job creation mechanisms will grind the recovery to the hospitality sector."

Mr Cummins said the system makes "absolutely no sense" for our country as it tries to work its way out of crisis.

"The economic situation in Ireland has changed dramatically but the JLC system has not taken this into account in any way. It forced restaurants, which are struggling to survive and in many cases operating at loss, to pay a premium over and above the national minimum wage," he said.

This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, September 12, 2011