I am in the industry as previously disclosed.VRS problems...

I am in the industry as previously disclosed.

VRS problems existed BEFORE Bushfires, floods and pandemics. These incidents have merely made their problems worse.

Who are VRS competitors? It is different in different geographical areas. Apart from Land Surveys they are the only “national” survey firms. There are other firms that are in two or so states, but by far VRS have strong competitors in each city/region they operate. The competitors in Melbourne are different to Brisbane or Perth. My knowledge of the big 3 east coast states reckons they have 3 or 4 significant competitors in each of these markets.

Veris’s problems are the same in every region. Little margin and poor utilisation. They need to shrink to greatness but I expect they cannot afford the redundancy costs.

With Margin I know they are leaving 20% of their winning rate on the table. What a waste.

That said I don;t believe I have read anything about VRS making provisions for staff reductions even though they say there are removing some middle management.

I have been told, 2nd hand, that some experienced people in regional QLD have been made redundant. However they are then shipping up Surveyors from Brisbane to cover workloads in regional QLD - flights, accom, messing all eating into the margin. The Brisbane office has not won a project in two months. All of this is from a current employee. That employee is looking for a job mind you.

As far as Survey firms using jobkeeper to subsidise work - I know of several instances in the areas I work. The rationale being “the work is needed, it is short term, 1/3rd of the wages are paid by the State Aid, I will lower the rate”.

As jobkeeper was designed for a snap back it should not be extended to employers in most industries. It should only be used for those in the most highly disrupted industries - tourism, travel and Melbourne. Time for the nature of economics and the market economy to take its course and reward, not penalise, well run businesses.