Sacked workers bitter over lack of notice

Press, 26 August 1986, Page 11

Sacked workers bitter over lack of notice

Some of the 16 staff made redundant by the closing of the Christchurch warehouse of Morris Black and Matheson are bitter at the way the company went about telling them. One man with 10 years service said that an Auckland manager had come to the warehouse in St Asaph Street on Friay and given all the staff their pay and redundancy money and told them to be out of the building in the next hour.

The company is a subsidiary of Ceramco, the same firm that owned Anderson’s Engineering, which closed with the loss of 151 jobs recently. Morris Black and Matheson also closed its Lower Hutt warehouse on Friday. The company’s general manager, Mr Chris Kennings, said from Auckland that the Christchurch and Lower Hutt warehouses were closed because of the downturn in the economy, and in manufacturing in particular. Another

factor was that it was not economic to carry stock in three areas at present interest rates. He said that the company would retain four staff, three of whom would be sales people. It would continue to wholesale the Makita brand of power tool in Christchurch.

The closing of the Lower Hutt and Christchurch warehouses came only a few days after the annual meeting of Ceramco. There was little hint of the action in the annual report, which said that sales and margins for the year were good. But the report did mention that overstocking was a concern.

In its review of operations, the Ceramco report said that since December last year total staff numbers had been reduced 15 per cent. "Ceramco is committed to a vigorous policy of growth combined with the objective of maximising the return on share-

holders’ funds. It will look for new areas of investment that promise aboveaverage returns. It will seek corrections in areas of current activity which are not performing adequately and dispose of those in which correction is not achieveable,” said the annual report. The company supplied mainly engineering equipment, but also automotive accessories and other machinery. It employed sales representatives, clerks and stores workers.

It sold its land and building in Christchurch about six months ago and has been renting it since then. It intends to move most of its stock back to Auckland.

The secretary of the Canterbury Stores, Packing and Warehouse Workers’ Union, Mr Paul Piesse, said that the union received notice of the closing yesterday.

One woman worker had been employed by the company for 36 years.