Port Adelaide makes eight administration staff redundant, stands down 50 employees as coronavirus fallouts hits Alberton
A day after the Crows had to make “extreme cost cutting measures”, Port Adelaide has made eight employees redundant. It has also stood down others and will have skeleton staff for now.
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Port Adelaide has axed eight administration employees and immediately stood down more than 50 staff, but spared its football department of any redundancies for now, as the club tries to “absorb the extraordinary financial repercussions” of the coronavirus crisis.
Four days on from the AFL suspending the competition and a day after the Crows made similar “extreme cost cutting measures”, Power chief executive Keith Thomas announced on Thursday that 80 per cent of the club’s workforce had been stood down for the immediate future.
The decisions ensure there is only skeleton staff on reduced hours and pay.
“This week we executed the first phase of a plan designed to enable our club to absorb the extraordinary financial repercussions of the global health crisis,” Thomas said in a statement to Port members and supporters on Thursday.
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“We are committed to doing everything we possibly can to give our club the best chance to make it through this crisis.”
Power players and staff who were on the Gold Coast for the 47-point Round 1 win began self-isolating for 14 days on Sunday night.
The next day, Port closed its social club, its Prince of Wales Hotel and in-house merchandise shop on Monday, in line with Federal Government measures introduced to stop the spread of COVID-19.
At the time, Thomas said “right now the club’s 150th (anniversary) is about survival”.
On Thursday, he said the club would review its football operations again in a month and the remainder of its staff structure in early May.
“As is occurring throughout the world, the club will pay a heavy price,” he said.
“It will take years to recover. But we will survive.
“Next week, the remains of our workforce will pick up the ball again and start moving forward.
“Tentatively at first, as we hunker down to see off the physical threat of the virus, before gathering ourselves up to start hurtling forward again.”
Thomas again thanked supporters for sticking by the club and said Port was working through “a range of options” regarding membership contributions this year.
“The options for your membership in 2020 will be communicated in the very near future.”