An Auckland restaurant which advertised roles on a ‘No Jab Job’ website last month has been fined by WorkSafe $24,000 for breaching the vaccine mandate policy.
Damned Fine Food, which operates Lone Star New Lynn, was issued two infringement notices on Friday January 21 and fines for breaches of the vaccine mandate.
“One for allowing unvaccinated staff to carry out work when required to be vaccinated and the other for not having effective systems and processes to check Covid-19 Vaccine Certificate (CVC) compliance,” a WorkSafe spokesman said.
Each has an associated penalty of $12,000.
“WorkSafe wishes to note the actions of the New Lynn restaurant do not reflect the main company Lone Star, which has expressed a strong commitment to following the requirements of the Covid-19 Protection Framework,” he said.
Under the red setting of the traffic light system, restaurants can serve up to 100 people seated.
Restaurants who do not use My Vaccine Pass are required to be takeaway only.
It has been reported Lone Star New Lynn posted an ad for wait staff last month on the No Jab Jobs website. The ad was deleted a few days after being posted.
Paul Steiner, national operations manager at Lone Star Café and Bar Franchise Limited, said it takes the health and safety of its franchisees, their guests and crew “very seriously”.
“All franchisees are required, by the terms of their franchise arrangements, to comply with all relevant laws, legislation, and government requirements, including health requirements,” he said in a statement.
“Any franchisee that is operating outside of those requirements is issued with a notice to remedy the breach or breaches of their franchise agreement.
“Failure to remedy this breach within 10 days results in termination of the franchise agreement.”
Hospitality Business has approached Damned Fine Food for comment in response to the fines.