A decision to not re-hire employees who were laid off during the COVID-19 shutdown isn’t sitting well with former staff of the Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH).
The museum laid off three full-time and two part-time employees in March. Two other people were on contract with OMAH, and those contracts expired during the shutdown.
Staff were told in March they were being “temporarily” laid off. The layoffs were made permanent by a board decision in June. That was upsetting to the staff, said one former employee, who didn’t want her name used.
“A lot of us gave so much of ourselves to this organization. We did it because it’s a non-profit and because we loved it,” she said.
She was concerned about a lack of communication from management during the shutdown and said the email employees received informing them of the temporary layoffs was sent to their work emails, and they were locked out of those accounts, preventing some of them from having a record of it.
She said it was “a shock” to her and her former colleagues to learn of OMAH’s reopening through an Instagram post.
“What was more painful is jobs were created in place of our jobs,” she said, adding the new job was posted and was not offered to any of the laid-off staff.
Ninette Gyorody, OMAH’s executive director, said the museum is hiring an administrative assistant. It’s a new position, one the museum hasn’t had before, which is partly why it wasn’t offered to one of the former employees.
“While we are unable to run programs, while we are unable to make revenue the way we did last year, we determined an administrative assistant is what we needed,” she said, adding it is part of a “reorganization” at OMAH. “They were made aware that it was available and they were welcome to apply.”
None of the laid-off employees applied because they were “upset” with how the entire situation unfolded, said the former staff member.
Gyorody said the deadline for applications has passed and officials are going through applications. Among the applicants are people who are “involved with OMAH,” she said, including a volunteer and a past employee.
The decision to lay off staff “was not made quickly and it was not made lightly,” Gyorody said.
As a non-profit, OMAH is in a vulnerable position during the pandemic and has to make some difficult decisions to ensure it makes it through, she said.
While there is no good time to lay off staff, she said, “we felt it was better to do it now, before the CERB (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) runs out.”
“The board and the human resources committee considered all the options. Because everything is shifting so rapidly, they felt this was the direction and timeline they’re moving with," she said.
The former employee said most of those who were laid off were making more on CERB than they were at OMAH, “but we still want jobs.”
“I don’t want anyone to feel like we’re feeling entitled,” she said. “I just don’t want to see the same experience happen to anybody else.”
Ideally, Gyorody said, OMAH will be in a position to hire more staff. For now, the goal is to hire an administrative assistant. Eventually, it will hire a cleaner/custodian and someone to look after programming.
OMAH reopened July 10. Gyorody is the only one on the payroll working there, with the support of volunteers.
The museum is open by appointment only.
There are two exhibitions on display right now — the Summer in Orillia history exhibit and the Hunter Games art exhibit.
Only the first floor is open to the public as part of the museum’s Phase 1 of reopening.
Interest has been growing since the reopening, Gyorody said.
“It’s kind of nice because, this way, they get a VIP experience,” she said. “It’s almost like a private viewing.”
