By Viv Posselt
Achievement House is feeling the post-Covid pinch as a drop in the number of contracts impact on its ability to provide a steady level of employment for people with disabilities.
It has always been something of a struggle, says manager Neil Fynn, but the post-pandemic disruptions has exacerbated the problem.
He said several contracts had ended in the past few years, and he wants to make 2024 all about bringing new ones on board. The reasons they fall away are not always made clear, he added. They lost a major contract in 2022 as a firm was bought out by an international player who closed it and moved offshore, while others were lost to post-pandemic changes made to the way companies operate.
Whatever the reason, the result for Achievement House, and for other facilities like it, is a shrinking and unpredictable workload with which to keep their staff fully occupied on a regular basis.
Main photo: Jeremy Piercy of Hamilton seals metal rods into plastic tubes. Photo credit: Waikato Business News.
Fynn said Achievement House has more than 40 people on its books.
“Between 23 to 25 are here on any given day, but we now find there are times when there is simply not enough work for them to do. When that happens, they can choose to either stay here and do something of their own, or they can go home,” he said. “Ideally, however, we would like to have enough regular incoming work to ensure everyone is busy and engaged all day… able to feel that they are contributing members of the community.”
Acknowledgement
This story was first published in Waikato Business News on February 5, 2024, and is reproduced with the publisher’s permission.
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He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata! He tāngata! He tāngata!
What is the most important thing in the world? It is the people! It is the people! It is the people!
