Tait to lay off 48 staff

Press, 28 May 1983, Page 6

Tait to lay off 48 staff

A Christchurch radiotelephone manufacturing firm will lay off 48 of its production staff in four weeks because of a fall in exports. Tait Electronics has spent the last two days negotiating the redundancy payments with Engineers’ Union officials.

Most of the workers being laid off are women, and all but three are members of the Engineers’ Union. The union’s secretary, Mr Rob Todd, said last evening that this was the biggest layoff his union had seen in Christchurch for years. “Naturally I am not very happy about it, and we will be looking to assist the people who have been made redundant to find new jobs,” he said.

Union officials would meet the workers next week to discuss the payments and the possibility of finding more work.

“Of course the job situation has got worse in Christchurch in the last few months.” Most of the lay-offs affected women because they were the ones working on the assembly line which was being cut back.

All of the workers would receive a redundancy payment, including those who had been employed by the company for less than 12 months, said Mr Todd, as they were covered by their award. “However much money they receive will not soften the blow of losing a job, but they have an advantage over other redundancies in recent months.” Tait Electronics won an export award in 1981, when it exported $7 million worth of equipment. Mr A. N. Tait, the company’s managing director, was not available for comment last evening.