Scan laws hit pub staff

A Queensland hotel has been forced to cut staff hours because of the State Government's compulsory identification scanner laws.

Gladstone's Central Lane Hotel owner Rick Adams said the laws have forced him to reduce some of his employees’ hours.

He says the new rules, introduced on July 1 last year, as the Queensland Government's way of making club precincts safer, has cost his business "tens of thousands of dollars".

"We have incurred tens of thousands of dollars in expenses that we cannot get a return in investment on," Mr Adams told the Gladstone Observer.

He says the government should look at the impact the new law is having on regional pubs and businesses.

The changes affect clubs and pubs in the state's 17 safe night out precincts.

They have forced the CBD club to install an ID scanner for the downstairs pub which is open with gaming facilities past midnight seven days a week.

The Queens Hotel was another pub that was forced to purchase the ID scanner.

All of these are creating more costs for pubs and clubs around the state.

Mr Adams said the costs his pub had incurred were massive.

He now had to invest thousands of dollars in operating the scanners, and outsourcing a security guard to check IDs from 10pm to 5am seven days a week in the downstairs bar.

Before the changes were introduced, IDs were checked by bar staff.

He said the changes were too unwieldy and it would have been smarter to bring in a system where it was compulsory to operate the scanners at the downstairs pub on Friday and Saturday nights.

The problem, he said, was that the State Government had failed to properly consult regional businesses before rolling out the regulation.

"The reality of it is, the scanners do serve a purpose but the one size fits all policy the government used for the roll out didn't work,” Mr Adams told the Gladstone Observer.

5th July 2018