SkyCity Entertainment Group gets wage subsidy extension: extra $9.4m for 2219 staff

Casino, gaming and hotel business SkyCity Entertainment Group has now received $31 million in Government-funded wage subsidies after being granted a $9.4m top-up.

Work and Income's website has recorded how the company got the extra $9.4m in extensions for 2219 employees on top of the previous $21.6m it got when its workforce was 3272 employees.

Asked today about receiving the extra $9.4m, SkyCity reiterated a statement it had already sent out last week when it was applying for that top-up.

"As with so many businesses in New Zealand, the Covid-19 crisis has fundamentally changed the SkyCity business for the foreseeable future. To reflect this, we have right-sized our operations to be a smaller, domestically focused business, as previously disclosed," that statement said.

The core domestic gaming business was doing relatively well. But the employee-heavy areas of hotels, food and beverage and attractions had been slower to pick up, the business said.

"SkyCity has experienced a decline in revenue over the past 40 days of more than 40 per cent," a statement issued on July 13 said.

"Will apply for the wage subsidy extension to ensure we can sustain our employee base until business returns to previous levels. The application for the wage subsidy extension covers 2219 full-time and part-time employees," it said.

The wage subsidy extension provides an eight-week payment per named employee.

Businesses must have experienced a minimum 40 per cent decline in actual revenue over a 30-day period within 40 days prior to applying for the extension, versus the nearest comparable period last year.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the wage subsidy scheme will end some three weeks before the election on September 19.

"We have clearly signalled the wage subsidy is not something can go on for the never-never," she said this month.

Extending the wage subsidy beyond its current cut-off of September 1 risked delaying "the critical work that businesses may need to do to pivot into the new Covid environment", Ardern said on July 6.

The subsidy scheme has so far cost some $12.3 billion, according to the Ministry of Social Development's June 26 update, covering some 1.7 million employees.

Ardern pointed to the $400m tourism recovery package the Government was starting to enact and the existence of a covid-related employment loss benefit that is equivalent to the minimum wage, which is now available for people whose jobs no longer exist because of Covid-19.