130 lay-offs at Crown Lynn

Press, 12 March 1983, Page 7

130 lay-offs at Crown Lynn

PA Auckland About 130 employees of Crown L'.nn Potteries. Ltd. in New Lynn will lose their jobs next month because of a big drop in company sales. The company, which laid off about 40 workers late last year, has announced that the latest redundancies would include both salaried and production employees. Although the company would not give details, it is believed it had suffered a sales drop of about 30 per cent in recent months in its domestic and export markets. Of the 130 employees given notice, about half are members of the Northern Labourers' Union. The company has had discussions with union officials, and has served notices of

four weeks to those workers. The company's operations manager. Mr R. B. Humphrey. said that Crown Lynn regretted the action. "But we cannot continue indefinitely to sustain the cost of staff at existing levels while production requirements are severely reduced, particularly in circumstances that offer no immediate prospects of improvement." he said. The secretary of the Northern Labourers' Union. Mr L. T. Smith, said he felt sorry for the workers and for the company. The situation justified further the Federation of Labour's demand for a $2O-a-week wage rise. "That company is just not selling. People need an extra $2O to put buying power back in their pockets.” he said.