Staff Updates

At noon yesterday the New Zealand Government ordered all non-essential businesses to shut down by midnight on Wednesday the 25th March 2020. The shutdown period is initially predicted to be 4 weeks. During this period the HamiltonJet Factory and Christchurch Office buildings will be closed.

Everyone except for those involved with essential services will be confined to their homes during this time. For details of the announcement please refer to: https://covid19.govt.nz/latest-updates/update-from-prime-minister-jacind...

Our Business Continuity plan (BCP) is based on the following 4 areas:

1. Protect our people and those we come in contact with.
2. Adapt our business to the current situation.
3. Engage actively with our stakeholders: employees; customers; suppliers; and shareholders.
4. Plan for the recovery and return to a new normal.

This update details the steps we will take to cope with the effects of the shutdown:

• Factory Shutdown – Today we begin the process of shutting down production. This will be very similar to the way we prepare for a Christmas shutdown so will hopefully be familiar to everyone. Please go about your work with the usual focus on safety, professionalism, and care. We aim to complete this by 4pm on Wednesday. Once complete we will not return until the end of the shut-down, with the possible exception of one or two maintenance visits to ensure equipment is safe.
• Office Shutdown – The offices will be closed from the end of the working day on Wednesday the 25th March 2020. Please do not attempt to re-enter after this time. Please call Rob Carroll (021 193 6502) or Ben Reed (022 318 6951) in the case of an urgent need.
• Leave and pay – In line with previous announcements, all employees must consume sick-leave in the first instance to cover this absence. If you have less than 10 days sick leave the company will top you up to 10 days. If you have more than 10 days sick leave you can continue to use the balance. HR and Payroll will manage this on behalf of each employee. At the time of writing we are unclear what will happen beyond this point although further use of sick-leave and annual leave is an option. We anticipate another announcement from the Government as to how they will subsidise pay during this time and we will update advice as soon as we have any news. Rest assured we will explore all practical options to provide continuity of pay.
• Working from home – Some of our office team can work from home, although you MUST obtain your SMT members’ permission for this. If you are not sure you have this, you should contact them immediately as you will not be able to claim you are working from home if you are not on our list. Please note that only certain individuals will be able to contribute real value to the business at this unusual time. In addition, we will require all people working from home to provide a daily declaration covering what they achieved and what proportion of a full working day they feel they worked. The balance can be taken as sick leave. Full guidelines and details of the declaration will be available shortly on our Website.
• Equipment Provision – Where working from home is approved your SMT member may approve you to remove certain items of IT equipment from site to facilitate home working. Please do not remove anything without permission. All items are to be logged by your SMT member and must be returned after the shutdown.
• Critical Infrastructure Support – We are appealing for dispensation from the Government to have a very small crew of IT support, maintenance and stores persons allowed into Lunns Road to ensure we can support urgent requirements from security, police, fire and rescue services around the globe. If approved this will be around 2-4 persons and will not necessarily be full time. Individuals for this will be selected directly (we are not looking for volunteers at this time).
• Customer Impacts – Over the next 48 hours we will make direct contact with customers with orders with delivery dates within the next 8 weeks, including those which have not shipped as of today. We will be looking at the impact of the 4-week shutdown adjust the schedule to keep as many orders as close to the original delivery date as possible. When we have completed this exercise, we will advise individual customers what impact this will have on their orders.
• Agency Flexibility – We go into this event with higher-than-normal levels of production staff provided by Onestaff. Whilst we cannot guarantee what things will look like when we start back up, we are hopeful that most of these agency workers will be able to use their own sick leave, annual leave and claim Government support. We are optimistic that we will need to work fast when we come back, and we hope that many of our agency colleagues will remain on standby for a return to work in the future.
• Communication – As already advised, we will keep you posted with text messages and updates on our website (www.hamiltonjet.com) and Facebook Group page. In general, we will precede any update with a text message, but please keep watching the news and checking the site every day.
• Business Strength – Over the years the Board and Owners of HamiltonJet have been financially prudent. The company is in a strong position we do not believe this situation will jeopardise our long-term survival. We will continue to invest in people, products and technology solutions to support our customers around the world and will be well placed to return to the new normal once the pandemic risk has passed.

We will keep you advised of changes to plans as they develop. Please keep in contact with your Supervisor or SMT member during this time.

I would like to sign-off by saying thank you. You are an absolutely awesome team and it is a privilege to work with you all. I’m proud of how you have responded, and I wish you all well over the coming weeks.

Stay safe,
Ben Reed
CEO – HamiltonJet