To: Victorian Government
Hospo venues that tolerate violence against their staff should lose their licence
.jpg)
Working alone at midnight. Serving drunk customers with no security. Underage staff handling alcohol. Managers drinking on shift.
This is the reality for thousands of Victorian hospitality and venue workers, and it creates the perfect conditions for violence and abuse.
More than 1 in 2 workers we surveyed experienced sexual harassment at work.
Women and gender diverse workers are disproportionately targeted. For many, it happens regularly, for some, daily. From customers, from owners, from managers and co-workers.
Most workers never report it. Faced with the sheer number of incidents, they stop trying. Many stay silent, scared of losing their jobs or shifts if they speak up.
Because on top of everyday violence, there's the instability: rosters sent the night before, precarious casual work, visas threatened, shifts fought over via Apps and wage theft so normalised that 2 in 3 hospo workers have had their pay stolen, often by multiple employers, over years.
Why is this important?
608 Victorian workers told us what's really happening behind the counter, on the floor and in the kitchen. The picture is clear: this industry is failing in their duty to create safe workplaces and breaking their social contract with the community. Right now, there are no real consequences for failing workers.
That has to change.
Licence holders and business owners must be held accountable when violence happens on their watch and they failed to prevent it.
We're calling on the Victorian Government to:
- Introduce a penalty system for licence holders and employers who fail to prevent or address safety incidents, including conditions, suspension or revocation of their licence
- Introduce a dedicated safety framework for high-risk venues like late-night and alcohol-serving venues, developed in consultation with workers and unions
- Establish a clear, accessible reporting process that accounts for the precarious nature of hospo work: protecting casual workers, visa holders, and those with language barriers from retaliation.