InTouch | October 2023

INtouch

UPSTATE

SC-DHEC’s Extended Inspection Activities in Retail Food Establishments

South Carolina Department of Environmental Control’s (DHEC) Food Safety team members will begin performing in-person inspections on Saturdays in the near future.

DHEC’s commitment to providing timely inspections to all establishments, and temporarily adding Saturday in-person visits in working to reach each facility, is the next phase in working to rebuild their workforce due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person inspections provide a thorough snapshot of a retail food establishment’s operation, and helps the food establishment adjust as needed to ensure continued safe food service to its customers.

Inspections are a snapshot of how well food safety guidelines are performed in a retail food establishment. These inspections are a good opportunity to ask the inspector questions that you may have on current food handling procedures or possible changes to your operation.

Recent inspections have shown a pattern of several citations being marked. Included below are tools to assist with avoiding these violations during your food inspection and reinforcing safe practices throughout food service operations in your facility.

U.S. Hotels Record Gain in Jobs But Still Below 2019 Levels

Although the jobs report released on Friday provided U.S. hotels encouraging news, the hotel industry needs substantially more help to overcome its staffing shortages.

U.S. hotels again saw an increase in job growth in September. But despite the surge in hiring, the industry still has a long way to go to fully recover from the pandemic.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed Friday that hotels added roughly 15,600 jobs in September, up from the revised 12,000 jobs added in August. Meanwhile, the broader leisure and hospitality category — which includes hotels — added about 96,000 positions, representing about 29% of the total jobs created in the U.S. last month.

In September, the unemployment rate within the leisure and hospitality sector experienced a notable decline, standing at 5.4% compared to 5.9% just a year prior. However, despite this positive shift, it’s crucial to acknowledge that this industry continues to bear the highest unemployment rate among all the major sectors that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) monitors.

The challenges faced by the leisure and hospitality sector extend beyond just the unemployment rate. As an illustrative point, consider the fact that employment levels within the hotel industry remain substantially below the pre-pandemic benchmarks set in February 2020. Specifically, hotel employment currently lags behind by 10.3%, reflecting the significant setbacks this vital segment of the economy has encountered.

“Hotel job growth was strong this month thanks to near-historic wages, better benefits, and more workplace flexibility

than ever before. But hotels are still nearly 217,000 jobs short of pre-pandemic levels,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association.

“That’s why AHLA continues to ask Congress for help addressing the economy-wide shortage of workers that’s driving our industry’s workforce shortage. That includes establishing an H-2B returning worker exemption, passing the Asylum Seeker Work Authorization Act, and passing the H-2 Improvements to Relieve Employers (HIRE) Act.”

The U.S. added 336,000 jobs in September, close to double the month’s projected job increase and 109,000 jobs more than August’s revised figure. The U.S. unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.8%.

SCRLA Tackles Alcohol Regs

The South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (SCRLA) is actively championing efforts to modernize the state’s antiquated alcohol laws and regulations. Additionally, we are advocating for significant lawsuit reforms to curb the rising prevalence of frivolous lawsuits that are causing liquor liability insurance premiums to escalate at an alarming rate statewide. It is important to recognize that these concerns extend beyond the realms of restaurants and lodging establishments; they have far-reaching implications on convention centers, business travel, festivals, concerts, wedding receptions, as well as fraternal organizations like VFW posts, just to mention a few examples. In response to this growing dilemma, the SCRLA has created an ad-hoc Alcohol Task Force to address the challenges our industry is facing regarding the current state laws and regulations which govern alcohol, as well as to provide recommendations to policy makers of potential solutions, with the hope of providing relief for our membership and our industry. The task force is actively engaged in fostering a collaborative partnership with significant stakeholders from various segments of the industry and the state-level. These stakeholders encompass distinguished members of the General Assembly, the South Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR), the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, and the South Carolina Department of Insurance, among others.

The task force has made notable headway by conducting multiple meetings with officials from the Alcohol, Beverage & License Division of DOR. The purpose of these meetings was to address certain perplexing interpretations made by the Department regarding caterers and their involvement in the service, transportation, and storage of alcohol. Furthermore, the discussions also covered the licensing and special event permitting procedure in a general sense. While the members of the Task Force continue to work on a regulatory solution to these significant challenges, they will also continue to push the General Assembly to reduce the state-mandated $1 million insurance minimum for any business that serves beer,

SCRLA on the Road - Community Conversations

This fall, the SCRLA staff hit the road, traveling across the state to meet with local chapters and discuss both the challenges and opportunities facing our industry. These locally focused, community-based conversations brought together community leaders, small business owners, restaurateurs, hoteliers, and elected officials to have a candid dialogue about what the hospitality industry is experiencing and how our elected officials can play an integral role in our industry’s continued recovery.

Community Conversations were held in Bluffton, Columbia, Greenville, Myrtle Beach, and Rock Hill, bringing together more than 200 individuals and over 50 elected officials at both the municipal and state levels. At the beginning of each conversation, a Who Wants to be a Millionaire game was conducted where those in attendance were asked several questions in order to gain a better understanding of current business conditions. The game primarily focused on current staffing levels, workforce development, cost of doing business, netprofitability, joint and several liability, tort reform, hospitality and accommodations taxes, and short-term rental regulation. This was a fun and interactive way to demonstrate the issues.

wine, or spirits after 5 p.m. If determined to be necessary, the Task Force is prepared to put forth either a single piece of legislation or multiple pieces (depending on the issue), that would address, clarify, and streamline the way our members do business pertaining to alcohol. The task force has already had several discussions with several key legislators at the State House and has secured commitments to co-sponsor any needed legislation that we put forth that would provide immediate relief for our members and industry.

As the task force continues its progress and undertakes preparations for the upcoming legislative session, the group has successfully obtained a beneficial new interpretation from DOR. According to this interpretation, if a business maintains a liquor liability policy worth $1 million, the payouts from the policy can be consolidated for a total sum of $1 million, rather than being limited to $1 million per incident. While this is certainly a win for our industry, there is still much more work to be done, and we need your help for the critical fight we are facing. This is the most aggressive stance the SCRLA has taken as an association and your financial support is necessary for us to succeed. Donations for this work can be made using personal or business funds, with no limitations on the amount you can contribute. While our goal is to raise $100,000 by the end of the year, there is no obligation to contribute, and all contributions are voluntary.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the task force, please reach out to Hank Davis at Hank@scrla.org or scan the QR code below to visit our website.

Scan the QR code to visit our website and learn more about the task force.

The conversations were engaging and robust, giving our elected officials critical insight into how our industry is faring and how they can shape future policy that is friendly to our sector. The elected officials in attendance were able to hear first-hand, real-life examples of what our members are experiencing daily. They heard how difficult it has been to find quality staff; they heard about how the rise in liability insurance premiums are negatively impacting our industry’s bottom line. The list goes on and on...

After of the Community Conversation events, at least one legislator in attendance would mentione they had no idea about some of the challenges the hospitality industry in South Carolina was facing and that the event was meaningful to them.

These Community Conversations would not have been possible without the generous financial support of the National Restaurant Association’s Kitchen Cabinet initiative. The Kitchen Cabinet is a grassroots network of industry leaders across the country that work to amplify the role of restaurants in local communities. The goal is to develop meaningful relationships with elected officials and community-based organizations.