The owner of a café on Kildare Street in Dublin has been slammed by her customers after she was quoted in an article saying she knew some workers were staying on the PUP instead of returning to work.
The Irish Independent reported that independent café owners were "stuck between a rock and a hard place" as they are hoping for more customers to help them pay off the debt they accumulated during lockdowns but can’t find staff to serve an increased amount of customers.
Carol Treacy, the owner of Petit Café, located opposite Leinster House, told the Independent: "The top PUP rate is €350 a week.
“That's huge for transient student workers, and I do know people who've just decided to stay at home, take the payment, and not go to work.”
The comments came after the release of statistics that found around 90% of companies in the hospitality sector have had difficulty finding new staff as restrictions eased.
In an attempt to combat this Failte Ireland is launching a new campaign as a way to solve the staff shortages.
However, the comments made by the owner left some customers of the popular café with a bad taste in their mouth as they took to Twitter to express their disappointment in the owner.
One user said, “Ick. I work near Petit Café and got many coffees there. Not any more”.
They added: “She promotes it as an independent café and that’s why I went there.”
Another said, “Same down in Galway you have restaurant owners who sleep out for the homeless to get there face in the paper yet they cant pay there (sic) own staff a wage to keep them in a home pointless”.
Others felt if staff were paid a decent wage they would return to work.
One Twitter user said: "If their staff were earning less than €400 per week then their pup payment would be less than €350. So what does that tell u?”
Another said: “I won’t pay a good wage”- City Centre café owners who charges €4.80 a coffee”.
More people felt that the owner took the opportunity for free publicity, not realising its effect on their reputation.
They said: "I think many see it as free advertising, and not realizing the bad branding it creates for them. Of course, coupled with being bad faith employers."
Another simply said: “Never again will I darken their door”.
