Federal funding and community support helps Flagstaff employees return to work after fire

Flagstaff employees who were stood down after a fire ripped through businesses late last year are all expected to be working by the end of March, with federal funding, careful planning and community support helping the organisation to rebuild.

The Flagstaff Group has received a $150,000 cash injection from the Federal Government to support the disability enterprise and service provider to return to full capacity after significant damage to two of its businesses forced around 140 supported employees out of work.

“Employees are at the heart of everything they do at Flagstaff,” Cunningham MP Alison Byrnes said. “And this support from the Albanese Labor Government will ensure they have a safe and suitable environment to return to.”

The funding boost will allow the organisaton to establish two demountable structures in the coming weeks, which will provide important administration and first aid facilities which accommodate the needs of its returning employees.

“It’s not just about providing a place of work, it’s about providing those additional wraparound supports and also a safe place for them to go,” Flagstaff Group CEO Rodney Von Clark said.

“We always provide breakaway areas, breakout rooms, we have extensive first aid rooms, as well as additional administration buildings so that our place of work is a safe place for people with all abilities.”

The organisation swiftly implemented a business continuity plan after fire damaged the fine foods and the laundry premises at the Unanderra site last Boxing Day.

But while some aspects and processes of the businesses could be more quickly rectified, others were difficult to resume.

“We still have about 40 of our employees that are currently stood down but we’re planning to have all our employees back to work by end of March, first week of April at the latest,” Rodney said.

“We’re still facing some challenges with our fine foods business, due to the complexity of our certification and requirements under NSW Health, so we still have some delays and haven’t been able to get that operational yet.

“However, we’ve been working hard to find alternative work through our other business divisions for our other employees who were working in fine foods.”

Alongside the government support, Rodney said the community had also played an important part in allowing the organisation to continue its work.

“It’s been really helpful; we’ve been getting a lot of people who have been using our other services,” he said.

“The more business that we get for our other business divisions means that we can actually get more people back at work because our demand is growing and we can provide more work opportunities in those areas.”

Flagstaff has continued to support stood down employees throughout the process, through arranging activities, volunteering and work experience.

“There’s been a lot of talk obviously about our material loss but for us our front of mind and our priority has always been our employees and getting them back to work, but also providing them with continuous support while they’ve been away as well,” Rodney said.

And now as the last of the employees prepare to return, the organisation is helping them transition into the new spaces so they can continue to thrive in their workplace.

“We’ve been offering our employees an opportunity to come back on site and actually see the changes that we’ve made because our head office, laundry and fine foods business received significant fire damage, so seeing what we’ve done to rebuild and get our operations back up and running,” Rodney said.

“It’s for them to see it firsthand so they know what they’re coming back to and to be reassured that Flagstaff is once again a viable, safe place to work so they can engage in what they love doing.”

The community can continue to support Flagstaff by utilising the business units that are currently operating such as Flagstaff Paper to Paper and Flagstaff Laundry, or by partnering with the organisation to provide meaningful employment opportunities or experiences for people with a disability.

To find out more about the enterprises or to contact Flagstaff visit the Flagstaff Group website.