Sunny Hodge launches petition to extend skilled working visas to hospitality

Sunny Hodge, owner of London bars Diogenes the Dog and Aspen & Meursault, has launched a petition to extend skilled working visas to hospitality workers.

The skilled worker visas programme is open to dancers, choreographers and orchestral musicians, and Hodge is seeking to extend this to include non-managerial key hospitality positions such as sommeliers, cocktail bartenders and maître d's. He said the exclusion of such roles on the list "overlooks the contributions made to the hospitality industry by skilled and officially qualified workers". Up to 83% of hospitality businesses have reported staffing difficulties.

Hodge said: "Roles such as sommeliers, cocktail bartenders and maître d's are careers that take years to develop skill and knowledge in. They are non-managerial, highly skilled positions where the UK now faces severe shortages due to Brexit and the pandemic. Many of these skilled workers came from the EU and have left Britain due to hospitality closures and industry uncertainty. Our industry is recovering, but many are operationally unable to open due to UK wide skilled labour shortages. Whilst this petition isn't a silver bullet to solve all our issues, it will go some way to helping bring the industry back from the brink."

The petition will run until 24 July 2022. At 10,000 signatures, the government will have to respond to the petition. At 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in parliament.

The petition can be signed here.