Millennium hotel chain tight-lipped on Northland job losses

The Copthorne Hotel and Resort Bay of Islands is closed due to the Covid-19 crisis with an expected reopening by October 1. Photo / Supplied

Northland's biggest hotel operator is staying tight-lipped on the number of local staff who could lose their jobs as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Millennium Hotels, which owns the Copthorne at Waitangi and Omapere as well as the Kingsgate in Paihia, announced earlier this month it was shedding more than 70 per cent of its workforce, or about 910 jobs, across the country.

The Copthorne Hotel and Resort at Waitangi, which is heavily dependent on international visitors, is closed but due to reopen by October 1 at the latest.

The Copthorne Hotel and Resort at Ōmāpere in South Hokianga is open for business, as is the Kingsgate Autolodge in Paihia but with reduced services.

The Copthorne Hotel and Resort at Ōmāpere, in South Hokianga, remains open but Bay of Islands hotels in the same group have been hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Site managers at Waitangi and Paihia referred Advocate inquiries to Millennium's New Zealand head office in Auckland, but repeated calls and emails to company management went unanswered.

Unite Union national hotels coordinator Renee Cope said she expected to find out by the end of this week if the company was going ahead with proposed redundancies.

She urged the company to take up the Government's offer of an extension to the Covid-19 wage subsidy scheme which would keep staff employed for another eight weeks.

After that they could apply for Income Relief Payments of $490 a week for three months, aimed at people who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

That would give workers five months of income while they looked for other work.

Cope did not know how many Northland staff could lose their jobs. Fewer than five staff at the Waitangi site belonged to the union, with one of those proposed to be made redundant.

Meanwhile, Kauri Cliffs, a luxury lodge and golf course at Matauri Bay, is closed until October 1 according to the reservations form on its website.

Kauri Cliffs relies almost entirely on wealthy international visitors.

It is understood only a handful of staff remain on site of its usual workforce of just under 50.

Many of its workers live in Matauri Bay and the wider Whangaroa area where jobs are hard to come by even in good times.

Kauri Cliffs did not respond to Advocate inquiries.

Millennium and Copthorne Hotels is a London-based, majority Singapore-owned company with 120 hotels in Asia, Australasia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. The company bought a chain of 13 New Zealand hotels in 1993. That has since grown to 22 hotels around the country.