1/31/2024 0 Comments Goro ramen menuHanging over employees is the prospect that restaurants might not be able to continue staffing them when the loan money runs out.Īt 84 Hospitality Group, which operates restaurants such as Empire Slice House Goro Ramen and Gun Izakaya, CEO Rachel Cope furloughed more than 200 employees and has consolidated a few restaurants while managing about 90 workers as they concentrate on to-go service. The Department of the Treasury recently announced that employees who decline to return to work will not be factored into Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness, but it kept the same eight-week deadline. If employees decline to work, they risk losing unemployment benefits, which include an additional $600 per week as part of the CARES Act. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. They were making more on unemployment, and I couldn’t compete with that, and if they do come back to work they risk their health.” They were going to have to paint or do whatever work we could find because they were servers. “I reached out to (furloughed) staff, but it’s not going to be the usual job. “How can you be at 13 employees by June 30 when they restrict you again when you can open? If it’s only 50 percent (of) employees, why do I need 13 people to wait on 10 tables? It’s all I can have now,” Siharath said. Katie’s Diner opened its dining room in May to customers, but she is wondering how to get back to 100 percent employment while the number of tables in the restaurant are reduced. Oklahoma became one of the first states to allow restaurants to reopen dining rooms following social distancing measures at the beginning of May. Longtime customer support in Guthrie gave her confidence that sales wouldn’t fall off too much in the first few weeks of to-go-only service, but sales started to fall as the state’s stay-at-home recommendation extended through April, Siharath said. She received Paycheck Protection Program loans for both restaurants through her bank. She recently expanded with the Hive Eatery in December 2019 by adding health-conscious meals and indulgent breakfast items. Siharath has operated Katie’s Diner for over 17 years, building a successful business based on comfort classics. “I know of some businesses that were shut down and had their employees painting and cleaning, staff education,” Weatherford said. Weatherford said that guidance from the SBA for reaching loan forgiveness remains forthcoming, but that restaurants should consider re-hiring staff for non-traditional work. “People are rightfully concerned about what they need to do to obtain forgiveness for that loan,” said Larry Weatherford, public affairs specialist for the Oklahoma City district office of the Small Business Administration. If not, funds must be repaid over two years with 1 percent interest. The loan, administered by the Small Business Association, turns into a grant if a business reaches 100 percent of its pre-pandemic payroll by the end of an eight-week period. The federal government injected a second round of funding into the Paycheck Protection Program late last month, bringing its total to more than $650 billion. That Menu for Saving Small Businesses? 'Not Written for Restaurants' - Oklahoma Watch CloseĪilene Siharath is the co-owner of Katie’s Diner in Guthrie and The Hive Eatery in Edmond.
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