AFL to restructure operations but refuse to disclose staff numbers
The league will inform the majority of its workforce in the coming days whether they will be returning to work on June 1. But how many are there at AFL House in the Docklands?
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THE AFL is refusing to disclose how many staff it employs at its Docklands headquarters as the football industry braces for savage culls and cost cuts.
League staffing numbers are believed to have topped 400 several years ago, but an official head count is no longer divulged in the league’s annual report filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
A league spokesman told the Herald Sun it would not be supplying the exact number of staff employed at AFL House.
The most recent ASIC report, filed in February, revealed AFL staff wages totalled $115.6 million last financial year.
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The league’s 12-person executive team pocketed $10.56 million in combined salaries, an average of $880,000 a year.
AFL chiefs have begun ordering clubs to savagely downgrade their expenditure and announced on March 23 that they were embarking on “ the difficult process” of a restructure of their own operations.
The league will inform the majority of its workforce in the coming days whether they will be returning to work on June 1.
Asked how many staff the league employed, how many had been stood down and how many were on JobKeeper, a spokesman said: “The AFL has drastically reduced its workforce since announcing the postponement of the season with 80 per cent of staff continuing to be stood down, while the remaining skeleton staff are all on reduced hours and salary.”
The AFL, a not-for-profit operation that pays no tax, said 90 per cent of staff at its offices in Queensland, NSW, Canberra and Tasmania — as well as AFL Victoria — also had been stood down.
AFL staff who are continuing to work had taken a minimum 20 per cent cut, the spokesman said, while others were earning 40-60 per cent less.
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The league spokesman said AFL boss Gillon McLachlan had “gone on the record” explaining that he had taken the same pay cut as the players during the crisis — about 50 per cent if footy resumes and 70 per cent if it does not.
McLachlan’s salary was last publicly disclosed three years ago at $1.74 million.
In its statement on March 23, the AFL said “approximately 80 per cent” of its staff had been stood down until May 31.
“Those team members will be able to access their available annual leave and long service leave entitlements,” the statement said.
“The AFL will also provide staff stood down with nine additional special leave days at full pay to provide further assistance to them and their families during this time.”