Redundancy agreement at Burt’s

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 1

Redundancy agreement at Burt’s

About 20 of the 60 workers who will lose their jobs at A. and T. Burt Mechanical, Ltd. in Christchurch at the end of this month have already obtained other jobs in the engineering industry. A. and T. Burt has had a staff member employed full-time to look for jobs and put redundant staff in touch with potential employers, and the policy appears to have paid off.

The company’s personnel manager, Mr G. F. Birkett, said yesterday that the company was “thrilled” with the response from other engineering companies. As well as the 20 who had obtained alternative employment about another 20 were looking at possible job offers. Mr Birkett said that some of the redundant tradesmen were known for their work and were sought after because of their experience and reliability. The secretary of the Can-

terbury branch of the Engineers’ Union, Mr R. J. Todd, said that the response from other employers with jobs was a big factor in the decision of the four unions with members at the factory to abandon attempts to have an independent assessor investigate the company’s claim that it was closing because the factory was no longer viable. A meeting of the workers yesterday asked their union officials to negotiate a redundancy agreement for them, and agreement was reached with the company yesterday afternoon. Messrs Todd and Birkett agreed that workers who had received redundancy notices but had since found alternative employment would still be entitled to redundancy payments. Mr Todd said that some had worked for the company for more than 30 years and through the redundancy had lost accrued entitlements.