Руководитель баре в Белфасте призывает коллег платить сотрудникам повышенную ставку во время праздников

A Belfast social club that took more than four times its usual weekly trade during the Fleadh has paid all 28 of its staff time and a half for every hour they worked - and now its manager is urging the city’s publicans to do the same. The 3Cs on Rosemary Street turned over £155,000 in Fleadh week against an average week of around £35,000. Manager Eamon McAviney, who has worked in hospitality for 28 years, said the decision was made after watching staff work through a week of gruelling days of up to 18 hours. “Every hour they worked last week, they got time and a half. They deserved it,” he told The Irish News. “It was four weeks rolled into the one for us and when it came to closing up on the Sunday I knew they really needed a bonus. “We’re already a busy wee social club, but that was relentless for us all, to be fair. Don’t get me wrong, it was brilliant for the city and the bar but for staff it was very, very tough.” The club employs eight chefs and 20 bar and restaurant staff. It held its prices through the week, selling Guinness at £4.60 and Coors and similar drinks at £3.90, and running an offer of three pints for a tenner on its in-house lager. He said he went public with the bonus in the hope others would follow suit amid speculation that some venues in the city made up to £2 million over the week. “I’d already told the staff about it in private in our group chats. But whenever I put a post on just thanking the staff, I saw a lot of comments saying the staff deserved a bonus,” he said. “I was hearing other bars were just giving an extra pound an hour, and I thought, that is bad. “So I put a second post on to say, listen, this is what we’re doing - hoping to be ahead of the curve, hoping other places would follow suit, because the numbers I’ve been hearing of other premises making are extraordinary. “If we’re serving five times as much in a small social club, I’m sure they’re serving a lot more than that.” His message to the trade was blunt. “Appreciate your staff and just pay them what they’re worth, because they’re worth every bit of it. As managers, we have to get stuck in too, but your staff are your backbone. Without your staff you haven’t got a business.”