After Nikolas Vegenas, a bartender at Apotheke in Chinatown and Bar Meridian in Brooklyn, tested positive for the virus in mid-December, he attempted to apply for unemployment benefits both by phone and online. The website “was super complicated,” he said. “I called them and waited on the phone, and they said I wasn’t eligible.”
When asked whether restaurant workers who test positive for the virus are eligible for unemployment, a New York State spokesperson said: “Unemployment determinations are made on a case-by-case basis, but restaurant workers are eligible for unemployment under the same standards as any other. other employee.”
But Ms. Jayaraman noted that the state’s eligibility requirements for unemployment include being “ready, willing and able” to work, according to the New York Labor Department website, and specifying that “you have no job for a week.” If you work more than 30 hours or earn more than $504 gross wages between Monday and Sunday, this would make it difficult for anyone who is isolated for only a week or so to qualify as “able” to work, or worth even applying, she said.
Getting information about unemployment benefits and restaurant best practices can be challenging. A DailyExpertNews reporter who contacted both city and state officials to clarify their health guidelines was sent back and forth between multiple departments over two days, with several specific questions left unanswered.
Olivia Sternberg, a server at Le Crocodile, a French bistro in Williamsburg, tested positive shortly before Christmas and the restaurant gave her two weeks of paid sick leave. Managers and owners visited her regularly, she said, to see how she was doing.
The feeling of being looked after by her employer gave her some relief, but she still worries: Will customers want to dine indoors during the umpteenth wave in the middle of winter? Will vaccination requirements change, and if so, how will guests react?
“Here we go again,” she said.
