Truck firm lays off 21 staff

Press, 27 November 1982, Page 3

Truck firm lays off 21 staff

j PA Wellington , Clyde Industries N.Z., Ltd. yesterday laid off 21 staff in its outlets in Hutt Valley, Christchurch, Auckland. Napier. Hamilton, and Rotorua. The company sells trucks and has a vehicle-assembly plant at Carterton. The plant was not hit by the lay-offs, which represent about io per cent of the company’s staff. Clyde Industries’ Christchurch manager, Mr J. P. Elliston, said four workers at the firm’s Sockburn sales outlet would be made redundant. He would not give further details, saying that the redundancies were being handled at the firm’s Hutt Valley headquarters. The personnel manager. Mrs June Ranson, said the company had experienced a sharp trading downturn and saw no immediate prospect of an improvement. Eight staff were laid off from the Hutt branch.

A spokesman for the Clerical Workers’ Union, Ms Elizabeth Tennet, said the first the union had heard of six of its members being sacked at Lower Hutt was when one of them telephoned yesterday morning in a distraught state. The caller said she had been told to leave the premises immediately or the police would be called. . Mrs Ranson said that came about when a group of the redundant staff got together and refused to leave. The company then said that if any disruptive action occurred it would take steps to have them removed. Ms Tennet said that under the clerical award, the union was supposed to be notified

first about impending redundancies. That had not occurred.