Although up to 150,000 gastronomy workers and a third of all restaurants and pubs are at risk due to restrictive measures, the SME Association and the Hotel and Restaurant Association agree that health is now paramount and agree with the measures. However, he is actively addressing compensation and support programs with the Minister of Industry and Trade, Karel Havlíček.
–
“We are talking with Mr. Havlíček about the salaries of employees, as labor costs amount to up to 35 percent of sales. The second component is rent, which is a fixed cost that we do not currently have. Furthermore, to compensate for sales, we have to come up with a model according to which we give the economy money to survive, because we cannot only compensate for fixed costs. The fourth area is the moratorium on loan and lease repayments, which was to end, ”describes Luboš Kastner from the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.
–
From the information that the association has from entrepreneurs in gastronomy, it is clear that they need support by the end of October at the latest. And it is clear that it will not be better in December either, which is a crucial month not only for this sector.
–
“Not every gastronom thinks if he will survive these 14 days, everyone counts on surviving spring, because otherwise it doesn’t make sense and it’s better to end it now. December was the month we lived in until the spring, and no one now expects a recovery, so the fear is greater. Many want to give it, but they need motivation that when the emergency is over, they will survive January and February, which are months of normal in a normal year, ”explains Kastner.
–
Eight billion away
They want to enforce all points – rent deferral, revenue compensation, wage compensation and another moratorium on installments. For a month now, restaurateurs have been struggling with more or less restrictive measures. From Wednesday 14 October at least until 3 November 2020, all restaurants, bars, cafés and pubs will be directly closed, only with the possibility of selling through the window until 20:00.
–
“October in the normal gastronomic year was around 18 to 20 billion, in the covid year it could be 30 percent lower, ie around 15 billion and you will close businesses for half a month, so the direct impact is up to about eight billion immediate outages of gastronomic sales, “Adds Luboš Kastner from AMSP.
—
