Williams & Gosling offers redundancy packages

The far-reaching impacts of the global and local economic downturn brought on by COVID-19 continues to affect major local companies. One of the latest to be affected is leading freight and logistics company, the 85-year-old Williams and Gosling.

The Fiji Sun has been reliably informed by some affected employees that an initial 48 workers have been made redundant, with plans for more to be affected, especially those working in the company’s cruise liner and audiovisual divisions. Redundancy In a brief statement, responding to specific questions by the Fiji Sun, Williams and Gosling said: “We recognise that the effects of COVID’s impact on the economy will last a long time.

“In order to manage these levels of uncertainty, we have decided to streamline our operation so that we can do more with less, both now and in the future.

“We have strictly followed the redundancy process set forth by law, and those impacted have received a redundancy payment.”

It is also understood that the Ministry of Labour was consulted and those made redundant received twice the statutory amount of compensation, unlike other companies that have also recently laid off workers.

Earlier in March, Williams and Gosling was acquired by Neptune Pacific Line, who are also owned by the same owners as FIJI Water, The Wonderful Company based out of Los Angeles in the United States.