Petition launched to extend skilled visa programme

A London bar operator has launched a petition to extend the Skilled Worker Visa programme.

A London bar operator has launched a petition to extend the Skilled Worker Visa programme to include non-managerial hospitality positions.

With the pub and bar industry reeling from the combined blows of Brexit and Covid-19, Diogenes the Dog and aspen & meursault founder Sunny Hodge has raised the petition in hope that the programme will eventually include positions such as sommeliers, bartenders and maître d's. 

With the current Skilled Worker Visas programme open to dancers, choreographers and orchestral musicians, Hodge argues that the list overlooks the contributions made to the hospitality industry by skilled and officially qualified workers

The petition hopes that the government will recognise the skills needed within the industry and make skilled, non-managerial hospitality workers eligible for the list to meet pressing labour shortages within the industry.

“Roles such as sommeliers and bartenders are careers that take years to develop skill and knowledge in," says Hodge. "They are non-managerial, highly skilled positions where the UK now faces severe shortages due to Brexit and the pandemic. Many of these skilled workers came from the EU and have left Britain due to hospitality closures and industry uncertainty.

"Our industry is recovering, but many are operationally unable to open due to UK wide skilled labour shortages. While this petition isn’t a silver bullet to solve all our issues, it will go some way to helping bring the industry back from the brink."

Hodge founded Diogenes the Dog in late 2018, a wine bar and café in Elephant & Castle. Aspen & meursault, a low-intervention wine bar, opened in Battersea in August 2021. 

Pub and bar operators can sign the petition here.


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