500 mill workers offered voluntary redundancy deal

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 2

500 mill workers offered voluntary redundancy deal

PA Whakatane The entire maintenance workforce of 500 at the Tasman Pulp and Paper Company in Kawerau has been offered a voluntary redundancy deal, a company spokesman said. Tasman’s director of operations, Mr Keith Purchase, declined to say how many redundancies the company hoped to achieve. But he said the intention is to have most of the maintenance work contracted out.

Tasman employs about 500 maintenance workers including engineers, electricians, carpenters, plumbers, bricklayers, labourers and greasers. The move was part of

Tasman’s ongoing drive to make the mill more efficient, he. said. The deal was presented verbally by supervisors at a series of meetings at the mill site on Wednesday afternoon. A union delegate said he guessed the company was looking for about 300 redundancies and those retained would mainly be engineering fitters and electricians. The delegate said the proposal was initially received with mixed feelings by the workers, but now the over-all view is that it should be rejected.

He said workers in the older age bracket and those approaching retirement would probably wel-

come the prospect of a redundancy payout averaging $35,000. On top of that, they would receive superannuation and holiday pay entitlements, he said.

But younger workers, especially those whose skills and occupations were not in demand, who might have to move from Kawerau to find another job in a tight labour market, would not be so keen to accept the proposal, he said.

However, the unions were suspicious and believe it is only a matter of time before the voluntary redundancy offer is changed to compulsory redundancies, he said.