Mitchells & Butlers which owns and operates brands including Harvester, Toby Carvery, All Bar One and O’Neill’s is reportedly beginning redundancy consultations with staff as the impact of the coronavirus on the sector continues to hit hard.
The group established in 1898 currently employs employs an estimated 44,000 across 1,700 pubs and restaurants. It is currently unclear how many jobs may be at risk. Speaking on the BBC earlier today a spokesperson for the group said: “Our industry is operating in exceptionally challenging and uncertain circumstances.
“While we have worked incredibly hard to make sites Covid-19 secure and keep staff and customers safe, we are facing significant difficulties from the recently introduced 10pm curfew for pubs, bars and restaurants, new enforced closures and tapering government support that doesn’t go far enough.”
“Mitchells & Butlers, like many others in the sector, has taken the very difficult and regrettable decision to open redundancy consultations with a number of our front-line team and will seek to redeploy affected staff wherever possible.
“With trading restrictions and uncertainty likely to continue for the foreseeable future, we strongly urge the government to step up the level of support it is offering to an industry which has been repeatedly singled out and taken the full brunt of restrictions.”
