A Dublin restaurant is currently open for business with just four staff members because it has had to temporarily lay off 22 of its 26 workers due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Hugo's Restaurant on Merrion Row in Dublin is feeling the full impact of the COVID-19 lockdown with a decrease in diners leading to a reduction in opening hours and as a result, it has been left with skeleton staff.
The restaurant's owner Gina Murphy spoke to Newstalk's The Hard Shoulder about the tough decision she was faced with.
She said: “I had to make decisions today that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies - I’ve had to temporarily lay off 22 of my staff.
“We’re a team of 26, so 22 is pretty substantial. We have scrambled for the last week… everything has just fallen off the edge of a cliff.”
She added: “We were an extremely vigilant company… I’m in business 13 years here.
“I have wonderful people, who are all working with me long-term… they’ve got families and children and mortgages.
“Every day for the last week, we have scrambled to try and slightly shift the matrix to try to fit the business - even up until last night we were doing skeleton rosters and trying to share out the shifts.
“I woke up this morning and there was another raft of cancellations, and I had to make the prudent decision. I can’t keep things going like this… I had to make changes to try and save the company."
Hugo's Restaurant will stay open with a limited number of staff working from Wednesdays to Saturdays.
