An Undeserving Appeal

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 16

An Undeserving Appeal

The appeal to New Zealand Breweries by the member of Parliament for Gisborne (Mrs E. I. Tombleson) to reconsider the decision to close the Gisborne brewery deserves to be dismissed out of hand. Gisborne’s support of the Gold Top Brewery does not present “a moral case”, or any other case, for considering the rehabilitation and continuation of the brewery. The management of New Zealand Breweries has offered the Gisborne workers employment in the Leopard Brewery at Hastings, in a proposed bulk store in Gisborne, or elsewhere; and has undertaken to protect the superannuation rights of all the staff. That is surely as much as any employer should be expected to do for redundant staff. It is certainly no employer’s responsibility to find work for redundant staff in their home town.

In any event, it appears unlikely that those Gisborne workers unable or unwilling to move from their home town when the brewery closes will fail to find employment in their district. At March 31 this year, according to the Department of Labour, there' were vacancies for 55 males and 14 females in the Gisborne district, the total being seven higher than 12 months previously. At the same date only two persons were registered as unemployed in the district, seven fewer than 12 months earlier.