AFL job cuts: Gillon McLachlan announces significant job cuts
There was always going to be a bad feeling no matter how or where Gillon McLachlan revealed the details of savage jobs at the AFL, but staff were surprised the news was made from the front seat of his Toyota.
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One of the AFL’s highest-paid executives heads a long list of league staffers made redundant on Monday morning.
Darren Birch, head of AFL Media, will finish up at the end of October.
He is the first major casualty under a plan to streamline the league’s bloated bureaucracy and create what has been declared a “new AFL”.
Fellow executive Ray Gunston, in charge of the Marvel Stadium redevelopment, is phasing out into an advisory role.
A cloud also hangs over the future of inclusion and social policy executive Tanya Hosch, with a review into the league’s diversity programs being recommended by the AFL’s Indigenous Advisory Council.
Patrick Keane has been demoted from the executive but will continue to run the office of the CEO.
Long-time salary cap cop Ken Wood has also been let go, along with commercial manager Ben Sellenger.
AFL Media now reports into commercial general manger Kylie Rogers.
Former North Melbourne coach Brad Scott has been shifted out of football operations and will run AFL Victoria, while Trisha Squires will move from AFL Tasmania to AFL Queensland.
League supremo Gillon McLachlan addressed his full workforce via video conference from his car at 10am on Monday to outline the jobs cutting process.
“Today is an incredibly difficult day for us all, regardless of circumstance,” McLachlan said.
“I hope everyone, generally, is doing as well as they can … and I acknowledge how difficult this is … and I understand how anxious this period has been in the lead up until today.”
Staff are being advised individually about their future prospects throughout the day.
The league stood down about 80 per cent of its workforce in March and many have been told they will be required to reapply for their positions.
Up to 30 per cent of jobs are expected to be cut.
McLachlan told staff the AFL would take a revenue hit of about $400 million this year.
The league has repeatedly refused to disclose how many staff it employs.
Dozens of AFL workers have signed with the United Services Union in Sydney and the Australian Services Union in Melbourne, which last week threatened to “seek remedy (for rank-and-file staff) through the Fair Work Commission”.
The unions have also raised concerns over a requirement for league staff to sign a deed of release when departing AFL House, which they claim “is designed to prevent ex-staff from discussing workplace concerns and treatment”.
OH, WHAT A BAD FEELING …
– Scott Gullan
Optics is a buzzword in the corporate world.
Big organisations like to make sure that no matter what is really going on, it’s all about what comes across in the public eye.
The AFL has been playing this game for a long time, which is why there was widespread confusion when chief executive Gillon McLachlan popped up on the screen for one of the most important meetings of his tenure.
An army of rank-and-file league staff who had logged into the Webex chat knew already it was going to be “Bloody Monday”, with hundreds of jobs being axed.
What they weren’t expecting was to see the boss sitting in his car.
McLachlan delivered his address about the massive job losses in the organisation to his heartbroken staff as he sat in the front seat of his Toyota.
Obviously it would have been better for headline writers if it was “The Purge from the Peugeot”, but instead they got the “Toyota Termination”.
So why was the AFL boss in his car?
We hear there were internet problems in his house, so he attempted to get to higher ground for better reception.
McLachlan does have a farm near Birregurra in country Victoria, but no one was forthcoming on whether this was where he’d been hiding out during the most recent Melbourne lockdown.
His attempt to improve reception wasn’t always successful, which caused meeting host, the AFL’s internal communications manager Callan Date, a nightmare.
Date could be heard regularly throughout the 20-minute address saying: “Gil, you keep dropping in and out”.
So in a season that keeps going from bizarre to even more bizarre, the Toyota Termination fits right in.
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Originally published as AFL job cuts: Gillon McLachlan announces significant job cuts