Redundancies reduced

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 3

Redundancies reduced

Wellington reporter The number of redundancies notified to the Arbitration Court has reduced considerably during the last 18 months — from 1475 for the three months ending September, 1982, to 294 for the three months ending March, 1984. Since July, 1982, the Wage Adjustment Regulations have required that all redundancy agreements be notified, together with the number of workers affected, to the Registrar of the Arbitration Court. Statistics published by the Labour Department show a marked reduction in the

number of workers made redundant — 1475 to September, 1982; 1841 to December, 1982; 1313 to March, 1983; -916 to June, 1983; 490 to September, 1983; 985 to December, 1983; and 294 to March, 1984. The Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, said the consistency of these reductions was conclusive evidence that reflected the recent improvement in employment. They joined other indicators such as the upsurge in employment, reduced unemployment, and an increase in notified job vacancies to the department. Most of the redundancies

during the 18 months had been reported in Auckland, and about 90 per cent of compensation recipients had received the maximum allowance payment, he said. On an industry basis, metal products and machinery manufacturing had felt the greatest impact. This included the motor-vehicle assembly industries. On an occupational basis, production storage and related workers had been the biggest group affected, followed by clerical workers. ' All but 13 of the 7314 redundancies had occurred in the private sector, Mr Bolger said.