Halifax restaurants struggle with major worker shortages

Last week, restaurants across the province threw open their dining room doors and welcomed customers inside for the first time in months.

Waning Covid-19 cases in Nova Scotia have allowed the province to loosen some restrictions around indoor dining. In response, foodies have flocked to their favourite joints.

The flood of customers is welcome news for restaurants that have been hanging on for dear life since the latest pandemic-fuelled lockdown. But nearly all of them are facing one enormous problem: they can’t find enough people to work for them.

Christine Bower is the vice-president and co-owner of The Wooden Monkey. She says that after the third wave of lockdowns hit Nova Scotia in late 2020, a lot of workers ‘gave up’ on the food and beverage industry.

“They got second jobs. They moved on from one industry to another. I mean, at some point you start to wonder how long is this going to go on? And is this worth it to stay in this industry?” she explains.

Bower says she’s hiring as many people as she can find but that she still needs to find 20-25 percent more staff to get The Wooden Monkey up to the levels she needs.

Hiring ‘anyone that’s breathing’

Gordon Stewart is the executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia. He says staffing shortages are forcing restaurants to keep their doors shut even after restrictions have been lifted.

Even places that are open are reducing hours or converting parts of their operations to run with fewer workers. Meanwhile, they’re hiring anyone and everyone they can.

“I think they’re basically just [hiring anyone that’s] breathing. They’re saying, we’ll just hire people and try to work it through,” Stewart says.

He points out that the food and beverage industry in Nova Scotia was facing significant staffing shortages before the pandemic hit. But the uncertainty sparked by continuous shutdowns has only made things worse.

Statistics Canada says that, as of last month, there were 14,000 fewer people in Nova Scotia’s tourism-industry labour force than there were two years ago.

Even while restaurant owners like Bowers struggle to find enough staff, Stewart says they still haven’t had to confront the full scope of the problem.

Indoor capacity remains limited in this province, so restaurants can get away with fewer employees than they’re used to. Once things open up even further, that won’t be possible.

“We’re probably ten-to-twelve-thousand employees short right now in terms of our operating capacity. So when that 10,000 is required the challenge is going to be much, much greater overall,” he says.

No time to train

Although she’s been able to open the Wooden Monkey, Bowers says things have been hectic for her and stressful for her staff.

Typically, restaurants hire seasonal staff in the spring, around the time universities and colleges are breaking for the summer. They’ll use those slower, spring months to train staff and get them prepared for the busiest days of the year.

This year, Nova Scotia restaurants missed most of the spring hiring and training. When restrictions lifted, customers flooded back to staff members that were either brand new or hadn’t had a chance to properly prepare.

“We hired a pile of people, but you’re now trying to get them all trained. So you’re hoping your customer base will understand that this is very different than any other year,” Bower says.

She points out that, on top of all the uncertainty in the industry right now, waiting tables is still a very stressful job.

Servers spend most of their shifts close to groups of people not wearing masks. They clean up dishes and cutlery and drinking glasses where people have put their mouths.

“The anxiety for this pandemic, it’s not gone. I think about it often what my staff continually feel when they’re at work,” she says.

She says her staff work exceptionally hard, under very tough circumstances, and urges customers to be patient and understanding as they get their feet under them again.

Shortage could fuel better pay and benefits

Stewart says the massive staff shortages in the food and beverage industry will likely force restaurant owners to make their jobs more attractive.

That could mean better health care coverage, more training for employees, and other incentives. He said there’s also ‘no question’ the shortage will lead to better pay across the industry.

“No question about it, it’s going to push wages up,” he says. “I don’t even think minimum wage is an issue anymore.”

Stewart says it will probably ‘take a while’ for the industry to adopt some of these changes but that he thinks it’s a worthwhile endeavor ‘to build up more credibility in the industry.’