A prominent Rotorua restaurant owner is organising a mass shutdown in protest to the Government over "chronic" staff shortages and what he and other operators say is a difficult and costly new immigration system.
Indian Star owner Ray Singh said at a meeting on Friday, most Eat Streat businesses and some others around the city had indicated they would support the protest.
Participating businesses would not open on Monday, October 17. They would instead spend the day protesting about conditions they say could see the end of hard working and long standing businesses.
It comes as new Trade Me Jobs figures show the number of hospitality job listings in Rotorua has jumped 70 per cent compared with the same time last year.
Singh has operated his business for more than 20 years, and has a slew of awards. But he said recent months had been the hardest since he opened his doors.
For at least 12 weeks, he's worked seven days a week without a day off and the stress was taking its toll on the former winner of Rotorua's "Icon of Hospitality" award.
Singh said he struggled to find staff who wanted to work and had tried for months to bring in specialised staff from overseas at a cost, only to have the applications declined.
Singh said in his opinion Government policy was making it easier to stay on a benefit and harder for business owners to get the staff they needed to stay afloat.
Singh said he needed up to 20 staff today at businesses he either owned or part-owned, including Indian Star on Eat Streat and Rotorua Central, Wholly Smoked, Urban Gusto, Atticus Finch and Mac's Steakhouse.
"Sometimes the customers are there but we don't have enough staff. Sometimes we have only half capacity."
Singh said he was given about 14 contacts from the Ministry of Social Development of people who were on benefits and looking for work.
"I tried each and everyone, I tried to ring, tried to email them, texted them. No one came back to me for an interview."
He offered onsite training and staff could earn New Zealand Qualifications Authority credits as they worked, but no one was interested.
Singh said people weren't willing to work and didn't think it was worth it - especially if it was 25 to 30 hours a week - when compared with their benefit money.
Out of desperation, he tried to hire staff overseas to find ethnic cooking specialists but he said recent immigration changes made it too costly for the applicant and too hard to get accepted. He had two of his applications declined.
The mental stress of trying to keep his businesses going with few staff was taking its toll.
"It's a hard time for us ... I have been in New Zealand 25 years and 21 years in Rotorua running a respectful and beautiful business. I'm a community spirited person and support a lot of things but this is the first time I'm having a big headache. It's bloody awful."
He said the protest day was discussed with local business owners as a cry for help.
"We are calling on all hospitality to come on a platform together and show the difficulty we are facing."
He said he knew of other businesses outside Eat Streat that would support their protest, which aimed to have people waving banners and invited MPs.
Reg Hennessy and Sue Burnett from Hennessy's Irish Bar are supporting the protest because they are going through the same issue, with four positions available now they can't fill.
They are working long hours with no breaks to cover the gaps.
Burnett said the immigration changes, which meant employers had to be accredited, had made it hard on small businesses.
Burnett said the change was designed to ensure overseas workers weren't exploited but she said it had come at a cost for legitimate businesses.
"It's like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut... It's $700 to be an accredited employer, $700 for a job check, another payment to get a visa," Burnett said.
She estimated the cost for each person was about $1700.
Hennessy said they had previously employed many backpackers but since New Zealand's borders closed, there were now long waits for visas and it meant other countries such as Australia and Canada were favoured destinations.
It meant the staff who did "show up" often "copped it" on busy days because they were trying to hold down understaffed businesses, Hennessy said.
He described the shortages as "chronic".
"We have staff working way too many hours and way too hard. We have to respect the people who are there."
The Rotorua Daily Post Weekend sought Immigration Minister Michael Wood's response. In a statement, a spokesperson from Wood's office said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern signalled this week that hiring overseas was an issue the Government was working on to ensure the policy was working as intended.
The spokesperson said Ardern signalled MP Megan Woods would have more to say in the next week.
The spokesperson said labour shortages continued to be an "ongoing global symptom" as the world recovered from Covid-19.
"We are listening to the concerns of these sectors, and working with them to take practicable steps to unlock additional labour, as businesses work towards more productive and resilient ways of operating.
"The Government's immigration rebalance was designed specifically to address the immediate skill shortages in New Zealand, simplifying the settings and streamlining application processes for businesses, while ensuring wages and working conditions are improved for everyone."
The spokesperson said the Government was supporting the tourism and hospitality industry by providing median wage exemptions for specified tourism and hospitality roles through sector agreements, temporarily doubling numbers under the Working Holiday Scheme, and extending visas to retain labour already in the country.
The spokesperson said the new streamlined Accredited Employer Work Visa "makes it easier for employers to hire and attract migrants for specified high skilled, hard-to-fill occupations, offering eligible workers a guaranteed faster and simplified pathway to residency", the spokesperson said in the statement.
They said there was a strong demand from migrant workers to work in New Zealand, with more than 11,000 visa applications since the start of July.
Trade Me Jobs sales director Matt Tolich said the number of Rotorua job listings in the third quarter this year increased by 13 per cent year-on-year.
"Rotorua hospitality and tourism listings jumped by a whopping 70 per cent year-on-year in Q3, while trades and services listings were up by 29 per cent, and retail listings increased by 22 per cent."
Commenting on the figures, McDonald's Rotorua franchise owner Rob Parry said the number of vacancies was the reality and there were jobs available if people were willing to work.
He had 270 staff across three sites and could easily employ up to 30 more.
"We are struggling... I'm sure they have their reasons but there are 40-hour-a-week jobs for anyone who wants to work."
Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni said the Government remained "laser-focused" on supporting people into employment, education and training.
"MSD not only partner with businesses and employers, but also make a deliberate point of learning as much as they can about an employer's business, so they can match them with suitable job seekers. Through our suite of employment initiatives on offer we're also taking action to break the cycle of long-term benefit dependency."
Sepuloni said she was encouraged by the continuing high numbers of people moving off a benefit and into paid employment nationally.
During the past 12 months, more than 2800 people in Rotorua had moved off a main benefit because they started working. But there were still 4842 people on the payment locally, with almost 1011 under the age of 25.
Jetstar's first planes to Sydney and Gold Coast have taken off from Hamilton this week.