The City of Ocean Shores has provided 30-day notifice to several employees that they will be laid off and others that they will have their hours reduced, effective May 1st.
Due to a loss of income and reduction in services related to COVID-19 shutdowns, the City has laid off nine full-time employees and eight part-time employees, and reduced the hours of thirty-three others. These drastic measures were felt necessary in these uncertain times to protect the City’s ability to continue providing services and to protect the employees’ long-term interest in their jobs as much as possible.
The City is required by Teamster contracts to provide its employees with 30 days’ notice before layoff or a reduction in hours.
Our employees are vital to the effective operation of the City, and we understand that this is a hardship for them and their families. Certainly, we hope that the shutdowns due to the virus will end quickly and full business activity will be restored. The reality, however, is that we simply do not know yet what the situation will be this Spring or Summer. We also do not know even if we beat the COVID-19 now, whether some variation of the virus will come back in the Fall. Therefore, it was felt prudent to reduce where we must to best preserve our operational capability.
The City’s intent is to restore employees to the same hours they served prior to the COVID-19 cutbacks, as services such as the Library, Convention Center, Permitting, and Planning resume full schedules and usage, and as we resume utility services at the previous high levels of operation and income.
During these uncertain times, the City of Ocean Shores is working hard to ensure that we provide the community with the same high level of services they are accustomed to. Our thoughts are with all of you in these difficult times, and we wish you continued health and safety.