Village Roadshow Theme Parks backs staff during lockdown

April 6, 2020

With its Gold Coast theme parks closed, Village Roadshow Theme Parks (VRTP) are continuing to follow Government guidance on operations during the Coronavirus crisis. Warner Bros. Movie World, Sea World, Wet’n’Wild, Paradise Country and Topgolf remain temporarily closed until at least 30th April.

Following the impact of COVID-19 including Government restrictions affecting interstate and international travel, dining and recreation facilities and the request for social distancing, VRTP has also made the decision to reduce operations at Sea World Resort. While Sea World Resort will continue to operate, management is monitoring the situation and following the advice and guidelines of the Government and the Queensland Hotels Association.

Throughout the closure VRTP has been engaging with team members and has advised that it “will continue to support them during this period, including providing access to their accrued leave entitlements”.

VRTP is also allowing team members who have exhausted all of their leave entitlements during the stand down to go into 10-days negative leave.

VRTP has reached out to Aldi and Woolworths regarding current employment opportunities for any team members who are on stand down and allowing them to apply for these positions without resigning from their employment at VRTP.

Since COVID-19 emerged, VRTP has worked closely with Government and leading experts to ensure that at all times it has adopted the highest level of health and safety practices and we are continuing to work actively with all levels of Government during this difficult time.

Meanwhile, dedicated animal teams continue to care for the animals at Sea World, Paradise Country and Australian Outback Spectacular during the temporary closure.

Village Roadshow Theme Parks will continuously review the situation and will take steps to ensure that once the threat of COVID-19 passes, it will continue to operate as the leading theme park business in Australia.

In reference to the JobKeeper Program, Village Roadshow Chief Executive, Clark Kirby welcomed the Government’s initiative as being “excellent”.

Kirby advised “we have already registered Village Roadshow for the program and our denior leadership team is immediately engaged with the Government to ensure we are able to implement the JobKeeper program as effectively as possible.

“Our team members are our family, and this will give us an incredible opportunity to keep our family together and retain the unique skillsets we will need to reopen on the other side of this situation.”

Image: Sea World's polar bear Mishka (top, courtesy of Sea World) and Clark Kirby at Movie World (below, courtesy of VRTP).

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