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Redundancies at Avis Budget Group put 800 jobs at risk in New Zealand

Redundancies at Avis Budget Group put 800 jobs at risk in New Zealand
Redundancies at Avis Budget Group put 800 jobs at risk in New Zealand

Avis Budget Group, a renowned international rental car company, has reportedly announced that despite government support in the form of wage subsidies worth millions, redundancies cannot be avoided as the company struggles to stay afloat in the harsh economic conditions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Avis Budget Group, owned by U.S. based Avis Budget Car Rental and operated as Budget Rent A Car, Apex Car Rentals, and Avis Rent A Car in New Zealand, stated that the travel restrictions caused by the lockdown and the general rise in nervousness regarding domestic travel hit the company’s airport business especially hard, which slowed down its recovery.

While the company did not explicitly state the number of jobs that would be lost due to economic struggles, it has employed approximately 800 individuals across New Zealand from three of its aforementioned New Zealand car rental businesses.

Avis claims that it has begun a consultation process under which it would be going over several proposals with its staff regarding the three NZ brands.

The company released an official statement that claims that it has become very clear that any type of business recovery would be slower than anticipated initially, which unfortunately means that the company would require fewer number of people than it currently employs.

The company further added, this would mean that some employee roles in its NZ businesses are at a risk of being designated as redundant. The company is begrudgingly taking this unavoidable step and is fully aware what impact it would have on its operational employees.

According to the wage subsidy register, Avis Rent A Car was provided wage subsidies to the tune of $3.6 million for approximately 548 employees. The unit further received a wage subsidy extension worth over $2.3m for approximately 535 employees.

Meanwhile, the Apex Car Rentals unit received wage subsidy of over $1.3m for approximately 208 employees and further received $785,000 in the form of extension for over 176 employees.

Source credit: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122112097/rental-car-firm-avis-budget-group-redundancies-puts-800-jobs-on-the-line

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Omkar Patwardhan

Omkar Patwardhan started his professional career in the hospitality industry. Having nurtured a deep-sated passion for words however, he found his way into content writing and now pens down articles for theresearchprocess.com and a few other websites, spanning the sectors of business, finance, and technology./