Southern Cross Austereo has moved quickly to try and ensure the long term survival of their business and employee livelihoods by cutting wages and implementing a new leave policy.
From April all staff earning over $68,000 p/a will be required to take an immediate 10% pay cut for the next six months. This change will not apply to any employees paid an award-based wage and no employee will be required to work overtime during this period.
Onair staff have offered their assistance and also reduced their fees and contracts by 10%.
Every employee will be required to take no less than 10 days’ leave between now and 30 June 2020, and those with significant annual or long service leave balances are asked to utilise as much leave as possible over the next six months.
There will be no executive incentives paid during the 2020 financial year and all recruitment activities will cease immediately.
SCA CEO, Grant Blackley, says, “We have taken these measures swiftly to protect the long term health of our business and our people. We are endeavouring to ensure our people’s jobs remain for as long as possible during this unprecedented situation we all find ourselves in.
“These measures will impact all of us and I would like to thank and acknowledge our incredible staff for their support and commitment to our business.”
SCA has also asked the Australian Stock Exchange for a voluntary suspension of trading until early April.
The company says the suspension is necessary to enable SCA to continue to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on its business, and then to allow them to make an announcement on the impacts and the actions taken to address them.
Currently SCA expects trading to recommence on Friday 3rd April unless there is a need to change that timing.
SCA is the second company to ask for a suspension of trading, following Pacific Star Network‘s suspension of trading announced late last week.
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