Eighty workers have been made redundant by GO Rentals as the impending lockdown looms for New Zealand. The 21-year-old company prior to this, employed around 150 staff across six depots in New Zealand. With tourism down to a standstill, it is an unfortunate turn of events. The remaining staff will stay on the books for now as the company has elected for the government's support scheme.
"Unfortunately, we had to let 80 of our workforce go on Monday and it’s been pretty horrific," said GO Rentals managing director James Dalglish. "We’re working through the rest of our business continuity plan and the rest of our people plan as to where to from here."
Dalglish added that he supported the government's decision to lift the $150k cap on its wage subsidy. "The Government should be commended for its support of smaller businesses and now we have got some respite for larger players," Dalglish explained.
With the cap removed we’ll have the ability to support more of our workforce but with or without a cap, if you’ve lost 90 percent of your volume, and now 100 percent – because I don’t think we’ll be operating past Wednesday at this stage – how do you justify keeping people on when you’ve got no idea what the future looks like and no idea how long we’ll be in lockdown for? It’s just too uncertain.
Dalglish explained that they have to try and get ahead of this situation as it will give them a greater chance of recovering sooner. "The sooner we get on top of this, the sooner we can be back in the game."
