Wynnum Manly Leagues Club stands down more than 140 staff

A leagues club CEO on Brisbane’s bayside has described the moment he had to stand down more than 140 staff due to the coronavirus pandemic as the worst day of his life.

THE chief executive of a Brisbane leagues club has described the moment he had to stand down more than 140 staff due to the coronavirus pandemic as the worst day of his life.

Wynnum Manly Leagues Club CEO Craig Thomas notified his staff of the decision on Monday after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced indoor venues, including pubs, clubs, sporting and religious venues would have to close to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

The crisis comes at a time when the future of the Leagues Club was looking bright following the start of works on a $10 million revamp, which was expected to create 40 additional jobs when completed, as well as more than $5 million injected back into the bayside community since 2015.

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CEO of Wynnum Manly Leagues Club Craig Thomas with works as part of the club’s $10m revamp starting in the background. Picture: AAP/Richard Walker

But Mr Thomas, who himself would only be working for the next three weeks, said letting go of staff was the hardest thing to digest during these tough times.

“I had to let go of all of our staff on Monday, which was the hardest day of my life having to tell people that,” he said.

“This crisis is just impacting the lives of so many people, we were lucky that our staff really understood what was happening and were pretty good about it.

“Everyone from the club is supporting each other, this includes our members who are sending messages to the club, which is great to see.

“Our staff and everyone are a part of social media groups, where we constantly communicate and everyone talks to each other. That’s the most important thing at the moment, is that we just help everyone get through this.

“Mental health is a major priority during something like this.”

After works started on the major rejuvenation project at the Leagues Club earlier this year, Mr Thomas said preliminary construction would go ahead but the board would reassess the rest of the revamp at a later date.

“It’s kind of a good time to get those preliminary works done at the moment with no one at the club,” he said.

“But how it progresses after that would be decidedly the board later on.

“This just impacts so many things, such as the (Wynnum Manly) Seagulls football club and everything going on there … we obviously won’t be able to put as much back into the community this year with this happening.

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“But the most important thing is that we just come together and support everyone then hopefully when it’s all over, everyone can recover and can bounce back stronger than ever.

“We can’t really put a figure on how much this will impact the club because we don’t really know how long this will go for.”

Mr Thomas also urged residents to abide by the social distancing rules put in place to help reduce the spread of the coronavirus and also asked for the community to support each other during this crisis.