A group of former hospitality workers plan to takeover pubs and cafes around Australia on their quest to improve the hospitality industry by making it safer for all workers. Alex Hook and Jenna Hemsworth spoke to ACM about the takeover ‘Sorry Not Sorry’ tour in the wake of the Swillhouse, Sydney investigation in 2024.
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00:00A great hospitality professional, whether it's a waiter, a bartender or a barista,
00:05makes you feel comfortable and safe when you come to their venue.
00:09But who makes sure that they feel comfortable and safe?
00:13Well, Jenna Hemsworth, who was Australia's Bartender of the Year in 2018, said that when
00:19hospitality workers, often women and non-binary people, find themselves in an uncomfortable
00:24or unsafe situation at work, they often don't know where to go or who will help them.
00:31When Jenna and four others went public with accusations against their former employers
00:35in 2024, they received an avalanche of messages.
00:39As Jenna sorted through them, she said that hundreds of people were telling her about
00:44their own similar experiences.
00:46But they weren't the only kinds of messages that Jenna was receiving.
00:51She said there was also a lot of people reaching out to help, everyone from the nightlife commissioner
00:56to legal professionals offering free support.
01:00Jenna and the other hospitality professionals that started Sorry Not Sorry plan to use these
01:06resources to help those who find themselves in unsafe and uncomfortable situations.
01:12One of the most important things to us is that people who are coming into hospitality
01:16fresh out of school, looking for a career change and really want to make a name for
01:23themselves in the industry, know exactly what to expect, know what their rights are, know
01:29who to go to or who to call if they find themselves in a situation where they feel unsafe, unheard
01:34or unsupported and know that they have all of the resources in the world available to
01:38them and that they have someone that will hold their hand through it.
01:42We don't want people to end up 10 years in the industry feeling burnt out, bitter and
01:47disappointed by the treatment that they've received from people who should know better,
01:53who've been doing this for a lot longer than they have.
01:55We're really looking forward to ideally being a beacon or a safe place for people to reach
02:01out to, that our support doesn't finish when we leave the bar, that we finish our takeover tour.
02:07This is just the beginning.
02:08We're here to essentially gather information on what we need and how we can help the industry
02:15become a better place and a safer place.
02:18So hopefully by doing this tour, it kickstarts a movement of everyone looking out for each
02:24other but also having a focused place to come and feel safe.
02:28So hopefully we can provide that.
02:31Sorry Not Sorry is going on tour to spread the word about the change that they would
02:35like to see in the industry and to raise money for their own legal battles.
02:40They're kicking off their bar takeover tour on March 23rd at the Lincoln in Carlton in
02:46Melbourne before they go to bars in Queensland, Northern Territory, Western Australia, South
02:51Australia and finish up in New South Wales.