The Dayton area combined has nearly 30,000 restaurant servers, non-restaurant food servers, sales clerks and cashiers, retail and occupational employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s not clear how many are temporary, part-time employees or have paid leave available.
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Montgomery County opened its job center at 1111 S. Edwin C. Moses Blvd. in recent days to allow residents who don’t have access to computers to apply for unemployment benefits, said spokesman Michael Zimmerman, noting county employees aren’t allowed to assist with the applications. As of Tuesday afternoon, as many as 200 people used the computers to apply for benefits, he said.
Although it’s too early to determine how much of an economic impact the coronavirus will have on the region and employees in general, the figures are expected to be “very large,” said Holly Allen, director of marketing and communications at the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. Business owners are doing all they can to keep their doors open to avoid laying off employees, she said, but they don’t have much of a choice.
“A lot of them are making tough decisions,” Allen said. “Some of them have closed their doors temporarily, as we know, and it’s going to hurt for quite a long amount of time. So what we’re trying to do is to advocate on their behalf. We’re talking to our policy makers, we’re trying to make sure that whatever can be done to help our businesses, especially those here locally, that we’re speaking on their behalf and making sure that things are done to help them stay in business through this.”
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Restaurant owner Naveed Haq in recent days was forced to decide which of his nine employees to lay off, knowing all of them would be impacted. He laid off five part-time employees — mostly college students — and two full-time hourly workers.
Haq, the owner of Deg’s Flame Grilled Chicken, located in the Mall at Fairfield Commons, said he knew that college students might not be as affected as his employees with families, so he let them go first. The hourly employees have part-time jobs, so that also was a deciding factor in laying them off.
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He retained the restaurant’s general manager and assistant manager because both have children. In addition, General Manager Muhamad Najam recently purchased a new home. Neither of the two remaining employees has health benefits. So until business improves, Haq, a physician who has a private practice, pledged to pay each of their household bills.
“It’s really bad for these families,” he said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen and how these guys are going to make it.”
As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the store had only four customers and had received no delivery orders, he said.
Najam and Assistant Manager Syeda Gardevi said without their boss’s help, they aren’t sure how they will make ends meet. They’re afraid that it’s only a matter of time before the mall will be forced to shut its doors. When that happens, they will apply for unemployment.
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However, unemployment benefits may not be enough to live on, Najam and Gardevi said.
Other mall workers also are affected by the expanding business closures. Macy’s temporarily closed all stores Tuesday night through at least March 31. The shut down affects all Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bluemercury, Macy’s Backstage, Bloomingdale’s the Outlet and Market by Macy’s stores.
The company will provide benefits and compensation to its affected workers, Macy’s said in a news release.
“We will work with government and health officials to assess when we will reopen our stores and safely bring our colleagues back to work,” said Jeff Gennette, chairman and chief executive officer. “During this closure, we will continue to serve our customers through our e-commerce sites.”
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