Many Twizei workers leave

Press, 19 December 1981, Page 13

Many Twizei workers leave

PA Dunedin Uncertainty about future employment prospects is causing many workers in Twizei to look for new jobs. Many have already left.

The boom days of the town are over. The population has fallen from about 5000 in 1975 to about 4000.

At the peak of the Upper Waitaki hydro project, which is the sole reason for the town’s existence, 2000 people were employed by the Ministry of Works and Development, according to the employment officer of the Ministry. Mr Peter Dodson.

These included about 1000 wage workers, but their numbers are now down to about 700.

Mr Dodson said people started leaving about two years ago, and most of them had left in the last 12 months. Workers were going all over the world, although most were going to other jobs in New Zealand. None of the Ministry

workers had yet been made redundant, Mr Dodson said, but the lack of security for future employment had prompted many, particularly those with families, to look elsewhere.

The Government has said the work-force can be absorbed into the private sector on the Clutha project, the Clyde dam. and other “think big" projects. Mr M. Williams, the chief engineer of the Power Division of the Ministry, has said there will be a high demand for Twizei workers at Clyde, according to Mr Richard Ramsay, the information officer "at Twizei. Mr Dodson is unsure how many Twizei workers are likely to be taken on by the private contractors. Some of the contractors now working on the Clutha projects had taken their own workforces with them from Twizei, he said, but more jobs might become available when the larger contract projects start.