Staff Reduction Part Of Adjustment Period

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 12

Staff Reduction Part Of Adjustment Period

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter'

WELLINGTON, August 25. The reduction of staff at Fletchers’ plywood factory at Gladstone was part of an adjustment period, said the Minister of Forests (Mr Gerard) in reply to a question by Mr P. Blanchfield (Opp., Westland) in Parliament today. Mr Blanchfield had asked if the Minister knew that shortage of logs had caused the factory to dispense with the services of 10 men. What steps were proposed to ensure a continuation of their employment? “My officers in the Forest Service are taking steps to ensure that state forest licensees offer their full quota of peeler logs for sale to a manu-

facturer of plywood and veneer,” said Mr Gerard.

“There is no control over the disposition of logs cut from private or Maori land,” he said. “Consideration may have to be given to bringing down a regulation requiring all logs classed as suitable for the manufacture of plywood or veneer to be used for this purpose. “I am aware that some reduction has had to be made to the numbers employed at the Gladstone factory through shortage of logs. “It is inevitable that during the introduction of an enterprise f this size there will be a period of adjustment. 1 am confident the steps taken or contemplated can and will shorten this period." he said.