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Christchurch department store Ballantynes - Source: ONE News -
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Ballantynes' Timaru staff have all been told to reapply for jobs as the company increases its staff in light of Christchurch employees returning to the quake ravaged city to assist in the reopening of the store there.
The Timaru staff, making up the equivalent of 24 fulltime positions (excluding the cafe), were told late last week the business was restructuring and as a result they were being given the option to apply for a much wider range of positions, Timaru manager Hayley Larsen said yesterday.
She would not comment on how long staff were given to apply for positions, although it's believed they had only days in which to do so.
Some of the staff have been employed by Ballantynes for more than a decade.
"It's a real positive as we need more staff," Larsen said.
"Previously we were staffed over a six-day week and now we are staffing over a seven-day week and we need extra staff to help us."
The Timaru store has been opening seven days a week since April.
Larsen would not comment on whether all existing staff would be re-employed.
"There are more positions, more hours and more days, than there are people."
Larsen said she did not anticipate there would be any need for redundancies "unless there were say three people wanting one particular set of hours and not wanting to change their choices".
"That [reapplying for jobs] is basically to put staff in the departments that we need them in, and on the days required. Previously, most of our staff here were primarily Monday-to-Friday and we did the occasional Saturday with everyone having a quota to do. Now we have gone to seven days the roster looks a completely different thing.
"People may be working Tuesday to Saturday or Sunday to Thursday, so there is one weekend day. You need a greater proportion of staff on those days," Larsen said.
Additional staff had already been recruited for the cafe, but a further seven or eight fulltime equivalent positions will be required in other departments, some part-time and some fulltime.
The Christchurch store has been closed since the February earthquake, but is due to reopen at some time late next month.
The last of the Ballantynes' shopping buses from Christchurch is due in Timaru on October 14, by which time around 7500 people will have made the day-long shopping trip.
Larsen said the popularity of the bus trips has not waned, with 10 buses booked to visit Timaru this week alone, bringing more than 500 people.
"The town needs the buses to come down," Larsen said, explaining other Timaru retailers were in no hurry for the visitors to stop coming as they too have benefited from the extra customers.
"The whole town is noticing it is a far more profitable trading day [when the buses are in town]."
She suggested Ballantynes had become a destination store for weekend shoppers, with many from Dunedin, Oamaru and Ashburton, who would have shopped in Christchurch pre-earthquake were now shopping in Timaru.
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