Focus Live: There are no new coronavirus cases in New Zealand today, with the total remaining at eight.
Travel agency Flight Centre has implemented a four-day working week for its more than 1200 staff throughout its 140 New Zealand stores.
Staff will be required to take either annual leave or leave without pay to cover the one less day each week for the next two months.
Flight Centre general manager David Coombes confirmed the move to the Herald. He said its staff would be required to take one day's leave a week until June 30, inline with the Government's ban on international cruise ships coming into New Zealand.
Staff will have to use annual leave or leave without pay to cover the move. Photo / File
"Times are tough for the travel industry at the moment, and we are taking measures to protect our customers, our people and our business," Coombes said.
"We have reached out to the government on behalf of our people and the broader outbound travel industry to provide support in the financial relief packages."
The government is expected to announce its financial support package for struggling businesses tomorrow afternoon.
Flight Centre New Zealand, part of the Flight Centre Travel Group, operates more than 140 stores, 1200 staff and more than 200 self-employed travel brokers.
The move to a four-day week for its retail staff comes just days after it last week announced it would close 100 underperforming Flight Centre stores across Australia.
It did not confirm how many jobs were hanging in the balance, or which specific branches had been earmarked for closure.
In a press release sent to media this morning, Coombes said the Government's measures to restrict travel and enforce strict two-week self-isolation measures for all arrivals into New Zealand, announced on Saturday, had already had a "major" impact on the local travel industry.
"We completely support the Government's decision and we can see that this decision would not have been an easy one to make. However, the impact that this has on the tourism industry, along with other industries, is huge," Coombes said in a statement.
"In the past month, and particularly in the past couple of days, Flight Centre has seen a rapid increase in demand, with customers lining up at our travel stores across the country looking for assistance, including customers who may have booked on other agent and airline websites who they've been struggling."
Coombes said it was "timely to remind the New Zealand government that the travel agency community is a significant employer in New Zealand and without outbound travel, inbound tourism would not be an economic driver of the same scale as it is for New Zealand today."
He urged the government to take this into account as it crafted the relief packages.
"The New Zealand corporate community also has a role to play, ensuring that businesses and individuals are equipped to ride out these challenging times. I would like to think that banks are considering mortgage and loan relief, and landlords potential rent relief."
