The Specsavers’ support office at La Villiaze reacts to impact of Covid-19 pandemic
Specsavers CEO John Perkins has said that although they have done everything that they can to minimise redundancies, it is likely that in the region of 5% of roles at La Villiaze will be placed at risk due to the pandemic.
The largest private employer in the Channel Islands is also having to temporarily change the working hours of many of its staff at its support office.
Currently, most of the 500-plus Guernsey staff are already working from home to help the business remain operational. Colleagues are being consulted today about these changes.
John Perkins says: ‘It is with an extremely heavy heart that we have had to come to this decision, but no business can survive long-term without customers and an income stream. We have a clear need to respond and take remedial action to address our costs as quickly as we can in order to protect our business.
‘We are grateful that the Guernsey Government is doing all that it can to support businesses and their employees and that we can offer further financial assistance to help mitigate some of the impact these changes will have on our colleagues.’
More than 40% of support office staff in Guernsey have been asked to stay on and work their usual hours to support the organisation at this time, although some of their activity may differ according to current priorities.
‘These are incredibly tough times. The circumstances we face are unprecedented and clearly require us to act in order to protect the future of Specsavers. However, in doing this, we have done everything we can to manage the impact in the best way possible, treating people with fairness and in the way that we would want to be treated ourselves,’ says Mr Perkins.
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