Retail group’s jobs cull to hit several Sunraysia stores

THE Just Group is the latest retail victim to stand down 9000 staff, with the closure impacting Mildura’s Smiggle, Dotti, Just Jeans and Jay Jays stores.

Premier Retail, which owns the Just Group, on Thursday cited the “escalating COVID-19 outbreak” as the reason for shutting down all stores from Thursday evening until April 22.

“Regrettably, this means all employees in Australia are to be stood down, except for a small number of employees required to perform limited essential work,” the statement read.

“This means our team members will not attend work and will not be paid.”

It comes as Flight Centre announced it would stand down 6000 positions globally, including 3800 in Australia.

It is unclear how many of the job cuts will affect the Mildura’s Eighth Street store, as a company spokesperson said the outlined plan was still being put in place.

The company confirmed many of its staff would only be stood-down temporarily, with the intention of rehiring once travel bans and restrictions had lifted.

The job cuts follow a string of travel ban announcements nationally and internationally, as well as a number of carriers suspending a large percentage of flights.

Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said the restrictions had come in unprecedented times.

“People are effectively unable to travel in the near-term, either domestically or internationally,” he said.

“Within this climate, our people have been working tirelessly to help our customers amend their plans, but unfortunately the vast proportion of the work that they would normally undertake has now been stopped.

“As a result, we have been forced to make extremely difficult decisions, including temporarily standing down some of our people and cancelling our interim dividend, with a view of preserving more jobs for the future.”