COVID-19 Workforce Impact

To:  All Associates

From: Jason Hobbis, Vice President – Operations, GlobEx Management

Date: March 18, 2020

Re: COVID-19 Impact to Workforce

Fellow Associates,

Thank you for the work you have done with your management team, each other, and our guests in the last days. Thank you for the work we all need to do in the coming days. The Company’s Infectious Virous Response Team and your managers are committed to your health and safety and our guest’s health and safety.

Today we must talk about the Company’s current fiscal health and measures needed to ensure hotels can continue financially.

Current events surrounding COVID-19 are unprecedented. The situation has escalated rapidly in the past week. Measures have been taken that we have not seen in our lifetime. Federal guidelines and Provincial guidelines have meant people cannot attend our business. Provincial declarations of Emergency in Ontario and Alberta have required us to close many areas of our business temporarily. It is reasonable to expect the same measures would be taken in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Our Company has seen over $2,000,000 in business cancel in 7 days. Hotels that would have 200 rooms occupied today have 35 rooms occupied today. The average occupancy in our hotels as of today is 30% and declining daily. All banquet revenue has almost come to a complete stop. It appears all these trends will continue for an unknown temporary period.

Our Company’s fiscal health is dire. 

To ensure the Company can financially operate through these Regulatory Bans and States of Emergency immediate reduction in our teams are required. There will be immediate layoffs to over half of Airlines’ 800 associates.

This has been an extremely difficult decision to make. We regret the impact of it. If we do not take this action now, we will not have a Company for people to return to when these regulatory measures are lifted.

Today we are meeting with every Hotel GM and National Leader to let them know what roles have been deemed as essential and what roles will be laid off. Your leaders will communicate the impact to yourself in the coming days. These layoffs will be effective immediately or almost immediately so schedules can be revised next week.   

When reviewing what is essential for the business to operate, we considered:

• What areas of the business the government has mandated we close;
• Who can immediately perform multiple roles;
• Current skills and ability;
• A forecast that we will have very close to no business in the coming days;
• Seniority with the Company;
• Our Collective Agreement requirements.

Of the associates we are asking to stay, you do have the option to volunteer for to be laid off.  Specifically, those that are considered at High Risk by Health Canada. These are:

• Those over the age of 60;
• Those with compromised immune systems;
• Those with underlying medical conditions. 

Out of concern for our associates in these groups we would like to offer them the first opportunity to accept layoff. You must tell your manager this by end of day March 19.  

To support managers and our associates through this process we have created a temporary dedicated resource team. Working directly with myself, the team of 5 is a dedicated temporary resource for everyone.   This team consists of all HR roles and Jeremy Dean

Resources for those Impacted

1. For immediate information on Employment Insurance options go here:
   • https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development.html
2. If there are additional questions, a temporary website for Airline associates will be accessible from work or home (no login required) starting March 20.
   • https://airlinehotels.ca/covid-19-support/

Sincerely,

Jason Hobbis
Vice President – Operations
GlobeEX Management