The Honiara City Council (HCC) is scaling down its non-essential services based on the assessment of the City Clerk.
This was resolved during the Full Council Meeting on Friday 27th and the scale down has commenced as of Monday 30th, 2020, a statement from HCC Media Unit said.
“This is part of the Council’s preparedness and actions to respond to the threat and prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, consistent with measures announced by the prime minister and complimented by the declaration of the State of Public Emergency by the Government House,” the HCC statement said.
This means HCC will only retain a skeleton staff from the essential services to work in the frontline against the coronavirus pandemic with supporting staff required to provide minimal services during the period of a state of public emergency.
Against these backgrounds, the Council’s greatest priority and concern is the staffs’ health, safety and welfare and for these reasons the HCC management had decided to release staff to work from home and others to proceed with their 2020 annual leave.
The measures taken by HCC management for those having their annual leave are:
- Staff will be eligible for a leave advance of $ 2000 across the board.
- All leave passages are waived and shall be extended.
- All names and that of dependants will be forwarded to the PS of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development (MID) to facilitate leave travel under franchise shipping under SIG arrangements.
Measures for staff working from home and those on annual leave:
- Staff will be remunerated on half pay for two months which is equivalent to 4 pay periods. This is effective from the 2nd period of April to the 2nd pay period of May 2020.
- In the event, the state of public emergency is extended staff will proceed on unpaid leave from the 1st pay period of June.
All staff will be recalled to their duty stations only when the threat of the coronavirus pandemic is declared safe and the state of public emergency is lifted.
As of Monday 30th following the scale down, 25 officers (direct employees) will go on annual leave and 31 officers (direct employees) will self isolate and work from home.
