City in pledge to keep staff

THE City of Greater Geelong’s chief executive has declared the organisation will not stand down any employees, as it moves to close a series of facilities in line with new COVID-19 restrictions.

As a result of Stage 3 restrictions coming into effect in Geelong from 11.59pm Wednesday, the city announced it would close swim, sport and leisure facilities, sport and recreation stadiums, cultural venues, city-managed playgrounds, skate parks and bike parks, community centres, halls and youth centres (except for essential services).

But chief executive Martin Cutter said no employees would be stood down because of the closures, with affected staff to have special pay and redeployment opportunities.

“All affected permanent and casual employees will be paid special COVID-19 pay for the 14 days following a service closure, for the hours they were rostered to work,” Mr Cutter said.

“All permanent full-time and part-time employees will be offered redeployment into other areas of the organisation.

“For many, this will involve a mix of leave and redeployment, with many returning to the redeployment roles they’ve already undertaken during previous closures.

“Employees will also be able to access their leave entitlements, including next year’s annual leave, if required.”

About 120 city employees have already been redeployed to different positions, and the city would offer roles to “as many casual employees as possible”, Mr Cutter said.

Mayor Stephanie Asher said the chief executive and his team had done “considerable planning” to prepare for the effects of reintroduced stay-athome COVID-19 restrictions.

“Both the council and the organisation itself want all affected staff to be supported and to continue to feel valued,” Ms Asher said.

“The redeployment program will be put into action again. It will give impacted employees an opportunity to continue to serve our community through this second lockdown period.”

The pledge not to stand down employees amid the latest COVID-19-caused closures comes after the city indefinitely stood down 576 workers in late March.

ALL PERMANENT FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME EMPLOYEES WILL BE OFFERED REDEPLOYMENT INTO OTHER AREAS OF THE ORGANISATION. COGG’S MARTIN CUTTER, ABOVE