Swim tutors face wait for jobs
The Gore Aquatic Centre will reopen on Monday, but the parttime swim school instructors who were made redundant because of the Covid-19 lockdown must wait to be re-employed.
And although the Gore District Council thought it could apply for a government wage subsidy for staff at the MLT Event Centre next door, that now appears not to be the case.
The council made 17 part-time workers redundant late last month because its aquatic centre and event centre were unable to open during the lockdown.
Public swimming pools are able to reopen under the alert level 2 restrictions, as long as they have strict hygiene and social distancing rules in place.
Council chief executive Steve Parry said the aquatic centre staff made redundant were all swim school instructors. The centre’s management had decided swimming lessons would not resume until alert level 1 was reached.
‘‘There is a lot of uncertainty about when that will be, but personally I suspect it to be some months away,’’ Parry said.
The council was able to legally re-employ the staff who had been made redundant, he said.
‘‘However, when that may be and how many staff we might need remains a moot point. The likelihood is our swim school programme will only be a shadow of its former self when it does resume until confidence levels in the community about this activity are restored.’’
The total paid out in redundancy compensation to the 17 workers was $45,984.
Some had only worked ‘‘a few hours a week’’, he said.
A memo from Parry about the council’s revenue forecast, which was tabled at a full council meeting on Tuesday, said: ‘‘At the time of writing, we had just learned that Council operations that can prove a 30 per cent loss in revenue over the past few months, may be eligible for receipt of a wage subsidy.
‘‘This is very welcome news as up until now, advice received that council activities which were not contained within a separate legal entity (such as a Council Controlled Organisation) were not eligible.
‘‘An application for wage subsidies in regard to the Multisports Complex will now be submitted. If received, these subsidies will make a meaningful contribution to offsetting the loss of revenue.’’
But yesterday, Parry told The Southland Times that the council had spoken to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and it now looked unlikely that it would meet the criteria.
‘‘There has been a loss of revenue in fees and charges but that is propped up by rates, so the 30 per cent loss in revenue would be difficult to achieve.’’
A revenue forecast for the remainder of the year was also tabled at the council meeting.
It said that if Covid-19 restrictions were still in place, ‘‘aquatic services and the event centre will see a large decrease in revenue for each month it is not open at full capacity. On average, the Multisports Complex will be losing $52,000 in monthly income from the loss in admissions and bookings.’’
The council’s finances were discussed during a meeting held online on April 15, when Parry told councillors the pool relied upon a decent amount of revenue to offset the ratepayer input.