A business owner is concerned about the requirement for customers to have vaccine certificates.
As thousands of people are pleading for the government to relax restrictions, the owner of Tobys Seafood, Patrick Tobin, who has a strict ‘no mask – no entry’ policy has already had a gutsful of customers not complying with Covid rules and putting staff and others at risk.
“We've had a few issues, we've had a few trespasses,” he says.
“If we having issues now with mask-wearing, you're going to imagine what we're going to have.”
Tobin runs his family business, which operates on aroha and manaaki, and is one of the go-to spots many whānau visit and eat in. But, like many hospitality businesses that are facing the knife’s edge, he wants the government to provide support on basic freedoms to safely trade.
“We're talking about Māori and Pasifika - that's my target market.”
“What am I meant to be saying to them, ‘okay, nau mai haere mai, but hang on. hold fire. If you don't have a vaccine passport - don't come in' That’s going to have a major effect on the business.”
Hospitality New Zealand, which advocates for more than 3000 members nationwide, held a webinar hui this today to address what businesses want.
Thousands of New Zealanders are still pleading for some basic freedoms, which may come at a cost for businesses.
“The call by the government to move into a traffic light system and for consumers to provide vaccine certificates has the hospitality industry worried,” Hospitality NZ chief executive Julie White says.
The government is also introducing legislation that will allow exemptions based on medical grounds. But the process has been slow.
“Some businesses can operate without a vaccine policy but they're going to be severely reduced and they're not going to be operating in the red zone.”