Sharebrokers planning no lay-offs

Press, 3 December 1987, Page 4

Sharebrokers planning no lay-offs

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL

Industrial reporter

The downward spiral on the New Zealand stock exchange has not ruffled Christchurch sharebrokers, who have no plans to lay off staff because of the crash. Sharebrokers said their firms had either enough of a backlog to keep staff going or were reassigning junior staff — the workers most likely to be affected — to other duties. A senior partner in Chamberlain Anderson and Sturge, Ltd, a Christchurch firm of chartered accountants and sharebrokers, Mr Terry McCormick, said they had no plans to lay off staff. “We are looking at the situation, but there is plenty of work to do.” He said if the market continued to slide for the next two months the firm would have to re-evaluate the situation. Stockbroking firms in Auckland and Wellington have had to cut staff, but Mr McCormick said firms in the larger centres had

more temporary staff. Spokesmen for Egden, Wignail and Co., Ltd, Hamilton, * Hindin and Greene, Jordan Sandman and Smythe, and Lawrence Milton and Howarth all said they planned no lay-offs, although some predicted these might happen, in the future. Mr McCormick said the firm usually took on students during the summer vacation, but would not be doing so this summer. Another broker, who had been through, similar retractions in the market in the early and midseventies said it was a mistake to lay off staff because when the market grew again the company would have to retrain new staff. The secretary of the Canterbury ; Accountants and Sharebrokers Employees Union, Mr , Bob Marchand, said the union had not heard of any layoffs. He said employees approached the union if there were problems over lay-offs.