Coronavirus pandemic's updated impact on HIFK's operations
HIFK Fotboll Ab has during the past week held cooperation negotiations because of the difficult economic situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The end result of the negotiations is that a large part of HIFK Fotboll Ab's office staff and coaches are laid off as of Tuesday, 21.4.2020, a maximum of 90 days ahead. If the situation so permits, the layoffs can be terminated even earlier.
HIFK has agreed on new adjustments in the salaries of the representation team players. The players had layoffs and adjustments of wages to the prevailing state as alternative solutions to the situation. For some players, a layoff was a better option, but most of the team has been prepared to adjust their salaries and all the players who have chosen this option continue to train on their own according to HIFK's and the authorities' instructions. This solution, which was found in agreement with the players, saves 25% of the total salary costs for this season.
- What the players thought about during the negotiations was, of course, how both the association and our players themselves are coping with this crisis. We wanted to pull our straw to the stack while also preparing ourselves as well as possible for the season, which in practice meant avoiding layoffs. We now came to a final result where these objectives are met, says HIFK's captain Hannu Patronen .
- Everyone understands that this is a completely exceptional situation and now we have to adapt to a completely different situation than the one that prevailed when the season started. Yesterday we were able to end the negotiations and today we have made a decision. I am humbly grateful to our entire staff for having these negotiations done so well. Right now, the uncertainty about the season's introduction is so great that we had to make quite large cuts. Since we do not know how long our money should last, we now have to lay off some of our staff at maximum layoff time. We will continue to fight so that we can withdraw some of the salary deductions and layoffs, comments HIFK CEO Christoffer Perret .
- Of course, staff layoffs also have an impact on HIFK's operations. We strive to get the gang back to work at least part-time. Communication, marketing and the online store will continue to roll, because they are all important sub-areas for us in this situation. We also try to keep the sales going according to the opportunities that exist, Perret continues.
HIFK Soccer rf's staff continue with teleworking in the usual order, as there has been no need for cooperation negotiations on the association's side. All organized training sessions and events are paused according to current government instructions until at least until 13.5.