A culture of denial in the hospitality industry leaves many, like Kelly, traumatised

Amid a crippling labour and skills crisis, is it time the hospitality industry seriously thought about improving its workers’ experiences?

Kelly*, a final-year university student who has loved working in hospitality since she was a schoolgirl, finally pulled the plug. Working food service, the bar and the pokies rooms across three venues with one of Australia’s largest pub chains, as well as a stint in a high-end city bar, Kelly regularly encountered “sexist comments, catcalling and groping”.

She underwent therapy, and experiences what she describes as PTSD after a customer assaulted her, pushing Kelly to the bar floor so he could pour himself a beer.

According to our latest research of Australian hospitality workers’ experiences, framed around the Fairwork principles, Kelly’s experience is not uncommon. We received 383 responses to a survey of hospitality workers who were closely representative of the industry’s demographic profile.

Fair conditions was one of five Fairwork principles our study investigated. Of our study’s respondents, more than 60 per cent experienced verbal/psychological bullying or sexual harassment and more than 70 per cent had witnessed verbal/psychological bullying, sexual harassment and/or racial abuse.

One respondent added, “I’ve had customers spit on me, pull my hair, grab my breasts and backside, follow me to my car, call me a —–, try to jump the bar and punch me, [and] had a bottle hit me in the head.”

While customers were the main perpetrators of abuse and harassment, around 40 per cent of respondents said their managers, supervisors and/or co-workers were at fault too. Kelly told us that, despite several years of employment, she was unaware of any company training or protocols to deal with harassment.

In fact, respondents said training overall was virtually non-existent, reminiscent of established research showing that many hospitality employers are training-avoiders.

Regarding fair contracts, more than 30 per cent of our respondents had no contract nor saw written terms for their current jobs. One in 12 respondents did not receive payslips. One in five respondents was underpaid, substantiating our previous research on wage theft in the hospitality industry, particularly in kitchens.