Casual staff at event venues receive text message warning of no shifts until end of June – boss says they will remain employed
Adelaide Venue Management staff are worried for their jobs after a text message warned of no shifts until July. But the boss says it was unauthorised, and they will remain employed.
SA News
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The operator of three of South Australia’s biggest event venues has denied that hundreds of casual staff will be left without work because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Adelaide Venue Management chief executive Anthony Kirchner said a text message informing employees that shifts up until June 30 had been cancelled was sent without his authorisation.
Mr Kirchner told The Advertiser that about 700 casual staff, which comprise about 70 per cent of the company’s workforce, would continue to be employed on a daily basis.
He said limited shifts were available because of Federal Government restrictions on public gatherings, enforced in response to the crisis gripping the world.
“Casual staff are continuing to work with us,” Mr Kirchner said, adding that if event shift work was available, it would be open firstly to full-time employees and then casual staff.
Adelaide Venue Management operates the Convention Centre, Entertainment Centre and Coopers Stadium.
The text message prompted a Change.org petition demanding the company “take accountability for their employees’ wellbeing”.
Food and beverage attendant Nastasja Agerman, 23, of Prospect, said she had started the petition to raise awareness of what had happened to the AVM employees.
“I live with two others who work there and we all got the same text message,” she said.
“Financially, we are screwed. Despite what the company is saying, it is my understanding that everyone who is casually employed has no work until the end of June.”