Pye to lay off 150 workers

Press, 10 February 1983, Page 2

Pye to lay off 150 workers

PA Wellington Pye. Ltd. the multinational electronics company. yesterday announced its intention to make 150 workers at its Waihi plant redundant.

In announcing the redundancies. the company's' personnel manager. Mr G. S. Barnes. said that the measure had to be taken to reduce production because of a big decline in the market for consumer electronic products in the latter part of last year. “Our sales have dropped dramatically and this has created a situation which now requires immediate measures to reduce production to the required level." he said.

The Pye factory at Waihi employs about 450 people. The secretary of the Electric cal Workers' Union. Mr A. J. Neary, said that this represented about 46 per cent of the town’s work-force. He said that the redundancies would be a disaster

In a letter to the Prime

Minister. Mr Muldoon. Mr Neary asked for Government intervention to defer the redundancies and open an independent investigation into the viability of Pye. He said that Pye, nowowned by Phillips, had done well in New Zealand for many years and had enjoyed high profits.

“We therefore maintain that during the present recession it has a social responsibility to those people who have worked for it over a number of years. This is particularly so in a place such as Waihi where there is no hope of alternative employment,” Mr Neary said. . Mr Neary described the layoffs as a considerable blow to the electronics industry in New Zealand. It was an industry which had been particularly efficient and a healthy electronics industry was good for the whole country. "This laying off is not acceptable to us without first looking at every means of avoiding it,” he said.