Hills Holdings is a name that most of you will not know much about off the top of your head. So before we talk about the job cuts to come lets begin by getting a firm footing on what the company does and how they see themselves, “Today, Hills Holdings is an investment company. Identifying opportunities in high growth markets and working hand in hand with recognised companies to realise their growth potential. We’ve come a long way since the development of that great Aussie backyard icon, the Hills Hoist. In fact, it’s the ingenuity of such inventions that has turned Hills Holdings into an innovator of practical solutions for both the residential and commercial environments.”

Sadly the company is getting ready to cut back on about 300 jobs in a plan to reduce its overall expenses and restructure the company in order to turn it into a leaner and more profitable organization.

The company’s job cuts will be more than enough to qualify as a mass layoff action under the current federal guidelines. For those of you who are not familiar with the idea of a mass layoff action here is a look at how the federal government defines the term, “The Mass Layoff Statistics (MLS) program collects reports on mass layoff actions that result in workers being separated from their jobs. Monthly mass layoff numbers are from establishments which have at least 50 initial claims for unemployment insurance (UI) filed against them during a 5-week period. Extended mass layoff numbers (issued quarterly) are from a subset of such establishments—where private sector nonfarm employers indicate that 50 or more workers were separated from their jobs for at least 31 days.” Under the terms of a mass layoff action the employer must give several weeks of notice before cutting workers from the payrolls and sending them to the unemployment line. While this may be some comfort, it is little time to plan for unemployment and hope to find a new job.

Interestingly enough the company chose, in its latest release, not to talk about the changes in staffing levels that they are undertaking right now, but instead chose to highlight the mansion that they are building currently, “The talking point on the streets of Adelaide for the past few weeks, Adelaide’s largest mansion is under construction in the leafy suburb of Burnside. The massive three-level home, referred to by locals as the ‘Shahin mansion’, is starting to take shape. The mansion is 57 metres wide x 14 metres high and 45 metres deep and boasts an estimated value of $10 million. Fielders were called upon for their high level of expertise in the trade and machinery field. Fielders’ Sheet Metal Tradesman (Mile End), Daniel Collins, was onsite to curve the standing seam roofing. This project was unique to Fielders due to the curve and length required to ensure the standing seam became the ‘feature’ of the house.”
For the time being the workers are going to have to wait and see what severance terms, if any, are offered to help ease the transition.