Christchurch events company proposes to slash 60 percent of staff.

A corporation owned by Christchurch ratepayers is planning to cut its permanent workforce by 60 percent. Events company Vbase said it was a direct reaction to the Covid-19 initiatives for public health, which resulted in a 100 percent reduction of sales.

Vbase runs a number of Christchurch venues including Hagley Oval, New Zealand Air Force Museum, Town Hall, and Orangetheory Stadium, home to the Crusaders rugby franchise.

In a statement released this afternoon, Vbase said the reduction would mean 45 full-time and part-time workers losing their jobs if approved.

The business assumes there will be no incidents until later this year and expects recovery from 12 to 18 months to pre-Covid-19 stages.

"When venues can reopen for business, the long-term recessionary economic outlook is also expected to affect the attendance of events and hence the viability of events. It is not expected that the public demand for events will be sufficient to offset these negative forces," the company said.

Vbase said it was planning to maintain all casual jobs, but it was unlikely that people in those roles would be assigned work until the earliest October 2020.

"This situation and outlook have a tremendous effect on the Vbase business and employees. All workers were maintained in the short term with the help of the Government Employer Wage Subsidy and agreement to reduce wages by 20 percent," read the statement.

"While this helped us to hold the team together until June 19, given the long-term outlook and expected slow recovery, Vbase needs to may in size."

At this time, the company said it would not make any more remarks and issue another statement when a final decision has been made.

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