Staffing struggles force Le Gavroche to pause lunch service
In a statement posted to the restaurant's Instagram page, Roux Jr cited the staffing troubles being faced by restaurants up and down the country, including at Le Gavroche, since the lifting of lockdown, partly blaming new Brexit regulations for the vacuum of available staff.
As a result, it has been decided that Le Gavroche will open for dinner only from 5pm on 14 June until further notice.
Roux Jr said: "As you are all more than aware, the past year has sadly taken a great toll on the hospitality industry, but with restaurants finally being allowed to re-open to everybody’s relief there is still a trickle effect of major problems affecting our industry, in this instance, staffing.
"Since opening, restaurants up and down the country have suffered greatly with staffing problems partly due to new Brexit regulations as well as there now being a major lack of well-trained hospitality professionals since the pandemic struck. Whilst we have been working our hardest to resolve this issue over the last couple of months, Le Gavroche is sadly understaffed for the time being.
"Whilst it is incredibly frustrating and painful to report this, we have decided to open for dinner only from 5pm starting from June 14 until further notice."
Roux Jr added that the alternative would be to essentially overwork the restaurant's existing staff, which he is not prepared to do.
"Our staff wellbeing is of utmost importance to us both mentally and physically and we work hard each and every service to ensure our standards are at the absolute highest of culinary excellence."
Le Gavroche's announcement follows new data from UKHospitality that suggests a current vacancy rate across the sector of 9%; implying a shortage of 188,000 workers.
The trade body has called for the introduction of an 'Australian-style visa scheme' to enable overseas workers who do not meet the threshold demanded by the new point-based immigration system to come to the UK.
