Buderim Ginger cuts hours for 50 casual workers after Covid-19 lockdown

Nearly half of the employees at Buderim Ginger have been left without work but the company’s CEO is hopeful the business will bounce back quickly as soon as doors can reopen.

The CEO of Buderim Ginger hopes the southeast Queensland lockdown will end soon after nearly half of his staff had their hours scrapped.

Andrew Bond said about 50 casual staff at the Ginger Factory in Yandina were impacted after being told they had no work while the Sunshine Coast was in lockdown.

“The government assistance is very welcomed but I think the impacts of not being able to come to work reach quite far,” Mr Bond said.

“We’ve got a very loyal and fantastic workforce but the majority are casual.

“As a business we do feel for our staff and do everything we can to help them.”

Buderim Ginger employs about 110 staff across its food manufacturing site and the tourist park in Yandina.

Buderim Foods CEO Andrew Bond is hopeful the business can reopen on Monday after lockdown ends.

Mr Bond said he was “hopeful” the end of lockdown would mean his employees could return to work but it was very costly every time the business was forced to close during lockdown.

“From a tourism side of things, we’ve obviously got zero revenue at the moment and we’ve still got all the costs of maintaining the gardens,” he said.

“There’s a cost to reopening the park and restocking and that sort of people don’t sort of realise.

“We hope (on Monday) everyone can get back to work, the team is busily making plans now and we’re hoping to get things open.”

Mr Bond said “the unusual times” caused by the pandemic could be tough but he was confident the business would “bounce back” when it reopened.

“We’re very resilient and Buderim Ginger has been operating 80 years and I’m sure we’ll be operating for another 80 years,” he said.

Originally published as Buderim Ginger cuts hours for 50 casual workers after Covid-19 lockdown