The City of Vernon continues to take action amidst growing COVID-19 concerns in British Columbia. Our top priority continues to be the health and safety of our citizens, visitors and employees.
With this commitment in mind, all City recreation facilities were closed on March 18, in order to help slow and contain the spread of infection within our community. The facilities will remain closed until further notice.
At this time, it is with regret that we advise employee layoffs are necessary. A total of 102 layoff notices have been issued to part-time Recreation Services staff members. The majority of the layoffs were effective March 19 and 20, 2020.
The City is trying to lessen the burden on those employees who have been laid off by ensuring the continuation of benefits for employees who were receiving them at the time of layoff. In addition, a skills database is being created as a measure to re-incorporate employees into the workplace as soon as possible, and is redeploying current employees internally to areas within the Corporation that have been impacted by absences related to the COVID-19 situation.
We wish to thank both CUPE and IAFF for their collaboration and support as we move through continuously evolving measures to ensure a healthy and safe workplace and community.