News

PRLA Statement on Philadelphia's New Mask Mandate

Statement August 11, 2021
John Longstreet, President and CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association
 
Today’s action by Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney puts an unfair responsibility of enforcing these new requirements on operators and their employees.  We have several issues with this action even though we have a shared goal to keep the public and employees safe and businesses open. Once again, the City is implementing a requirement without PRLA’s feedback. Unfortunately, this will lead to confusion and inability to effectively implement, resulting in gaps in enforcement and further resistance from businesses and the public, potentially doing more harm than good.

The PRLA supports the goal of a vaccinated and safe work environment for all. However, mitigation efforts should not put business owners and operators in a position to choose between a fully vaccinated staff and customer base, or masks for all. This puts an unfair burden of verification on employees with no time to train or implement protocols. Over this past year, restaurant workers have suffered severe backlash when enforcing those rules. Our national partner, ServSafe, had to go so far as to create a conflict de-escalation training module to support those front-of-house workers dealing with customer push-back.

The PRLA wants to do our part to make the vaccine accessible to our industry’s workforce and their communities. This is why we launched an aggressive pop-up clinic vaccination campaign this summer in Philadelphia. We know that high vaccination rates will keep people safe and our industry on the path toward recovery.

We hope that the City will consider this and work with PRLA to ensure clear guidance and support for our workforce.


Media Contacts
PRLA: Stephanie Otterson, 717-963-8369, [email protected]
Food Shelter PR: Lorraine Gimblett, 215-254-6601, [email protected]