Coronavirus in UAE: Restaurant owners put service staff in new roles after dine-in closures

Dubai - Speaking to Khaleej Times, most restaurant owners welcomed this move to ramp up efforts to fight the coronavirus.

 All restaurants across the city are beefing up measures to comply with the Dubai Municipality's latest order. The decision states that commencing from Monday, March 23, only takeaways and deliveries will be allowed across eateries, with a complete ban on allowing customers to dine in.
The prohibition by the civic body comes after the Ministry of Health and Prevention (Mohap) and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority are strengthening efforts and implementing new ways to combat Covid-19 spread.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, most restaurant owners welcomed this move to ramp up efforts to fight the coronavirus.
Sabina Arulraj, owner of Appa Kadai restaurant, which has branches in Dubai Marina and Discovery Gardens, said: "Our restaurant has been functioning reasonably well with chefs and delivery workers constantly busy for deliveries and takeaways. But bearing in mind the recent situation as we cannot provide dine-in facilities, we are yet to decide as to what should we do with our service staff. We could send them off on an annual leave, but with no flights available now, that is not an option. Maybe, we will have to work out a different strategy for them."
Rakesh Jena, manager of Multifood in Karama, said: "With no in-house customers, we have to send our waiters on leave for now. In fact, we are also requesting customers who are physically coming to pick up the food, to remain inside their cars. Our delivery boys are wearing gloves even when they go to collect the money during delivery."
Echoing similar sentiment was Kamal from Iza Delights in Al Barsha. "These are trying times. We don't have an option. We have to let go of a few service staff at the moment. But we are trying our best to accommodate them in other roles like billing and handling deliveries," he said.
As restaurant owners continue to fit their employees in different roles, a few think it's still too soon to think of effective alternatives. Omar from Bhaijaan's Biriyani Restaurant said: "These people are anyway on lower salaries, therefore, I wouldn't want to send them off now. We are a small team of workers who mostly handle deliveries. I will try to rework my teams to accommodate them somewhere."
nandini@khaleejtimes.com