To all our customers, employees and the Wesleyan community, we want to let everyone know the latest on our restaurants, employees and plans for the next several months.
We have been closed since the beginning of spring break opening for only one day which we described in a previous post. We have decided, baring an emergency situation that would require our services, to remain closed for the rest of the spring semester. Under current conditions it does not make sense to reopen. Our staff will finish the shutdown process in our kitchens over the next few weeks.
We have been paying our non student full and part-time staff while we have been shutdown. However with the recent passage of the stimulus package, we will be making changes. The new law provides an additional $600/week of unemployment benefits on top of regular state benefits. After consulting with our staff, we believe that it will be more beneficial for them to receive these benefits than remaining on active payroll. While the new law goes into effect immediately, we will continue to pay our staff until April 4th to make sure they are financially secure until the new plan is implemented. We will continue to provide all employee benefit programs including medical, dental and retirement. This is a temporary shutdown and ALL employees are expected to return when we reopen in September. Our primary concern has and will remain the well being of our staff.
While the recent stimulus bill will help our staff and relieve us of some payroll expenses, our restaurants will still be under considerable financial stress. We have made several moves to insure that our employees are provided for and all our vendors are paid. We are counting on our customers to support us in the fall. We’ll need everyone of you buying wings, mozz sticks, penne vodka and pails.
We are incredibly sad that we will not have the many spring events that we all enjoy. Pail-a-Palooza, Lobsterfest and senior night dinner to name a few. We will do everything we can to make it up especially for the class of 2020.
Be safe, stay at home, wash your hands and GoWes
-Karen & Ed
