Car workers accept redundancy offer

Press, 11 March 1987, Page 9

Car workers accept redundancy offer

Toyota New Zealand, Ltd's redundancy offer to about 50 employees at the Buchanans Road, Sockburn, assembly plant has been accepted and the company is now engaged in transferring assembly from cars to light commercial vehicles. The last cars to come out of the plant are now being assembled, but Toyota’s public affairs manager, Mr Andy Cuming, said yesterday that a few months were expected to elapse before the commercial vehicle assembly got into full swing.

“We have reached the stage where we have put the matter of redundancies behind us and, I understand, to everyone’s satisfaction,” he said. “Now we are getting on with the job of converting the Sockburn plant to commercial vehicle assembly.”

Mr Cuming said that with the plant assembling commercial vehicles, the likelihood of a shutdown

some time in the future was extremely remote. “If Toyota New Zealand is to realise full potential in car and commercial vehicle production, two plants are needed,’* Mr Cuming explained. “Possibly the Thames plant could cope with car and commercial vehicle output if it were expanded, but the company policy is to use the Thames and Sockburn plants, taking advantage of the capital investment already involved, rather than close down in Christchurch and expand at Thames,” he said.

In the longer term, using the Sockbum plant only for commercial vehicle assembly could result in fewer calls at Lyttelton by Toyota’s specialised vehicle-carry-ing ships, but Mr Cuming said that at this stage he was not able to give any indication of how often the ships would call. Company spokesmen were not willing to comment in detail on the

redundancies, but union sources said that 53 people, mostly Engineers* Union members, had accepted the company package. Toyota’s offer was for four weeks pay for the first year of service and two weeks pay for subsequent years, up to a maximum of 10 years. The combined unions had not been able to persuade the company to increase the terms, said a Distribution Union organiser, Mr Kevin Cogle. “We could not do anything about it because the company called for volunteers before the unions were advised,” he said. Toyota had maintained that the unions had no right to negotiate, because redundancy was voluntary, not forced, he said. The unions had told the workers not to accept until they were sure they had other jobs to go to. Mr Cogle said that three storemen, members of the Distribution Union, had accepted redundancy.