Waitaki to cut 300 from its staff

Press, 8 April 1988, Page 3

Waitaki to cut 300 from its staff

By

RICHARD CRESSWELL,

j i industrial reporter I Waitaki International, Ltd, New Zealand’s biggest meat company, will cut more than 300 staff both in this country and at overseas branches.

I The cuts include 207 maintenance and works staff at the company’s 13 plants and 100 salaried positions. J 1 . ! About 136 maintenance, clerical and salaried staff will! lose their jobs in the South Island. ! Waitaki’s public affairs manager, Mr John Bayley, said the company began aj slimming process in February when 40 staff were l cut [from the Christchurch head office. Tjhose staff lost their jobs within; a week but Mr [Bayley said no date had been set [for the latest round of lay-offs. Many ■are[ expected to finish next week; Negotiations were continuing with the unions involved for a redundancy package, Mr Bayley said. I In the South Island, 86 clerical and maintenance plant staff will be cut, 10 from Nelson, 19 from Islington, five from Smith? (field at Timaru, 22 from [Burnside at Dunedin, 18 [ from near Oamaru, and 12 from the I Finegand i site at Balclu- ! tha. j The Marlborough plant i was not affected, said Mr ' Bayley, i | "The cuts have been | identified and workers will go as determined on a plant by plant basis,” hie said. “The figures are not exact, however.” The South Island will also lose 50 salaried staff, 2s, of them at Canterbury . i plants. I j The clerical and maini tenance cuts range from [ building workers, stationi ary engine drivers and plumbers to motor mechi anics. [ I ! [The company would make sayings depending ' oh what happened to

stock numbers at plants. “A cut in freezing workers would mean actual reductions in plant size,” said Mr Bayley. There had been no decision to cut freezing workers’ jobs. Unions would be the first to know of any such decision. Up to 100 jobs would be cut at overseas branches including London, Hong Kong, New York and Singapore, as well as Canada and Germany.: Waitaki this [ year showed an $BOO,OOO net profit compared with a $lO million profit the previous year. i Mr David O’Connell, the . Canterbury . Building Workers’ Union branch secretary, and and [official with the Christchurch branch of the Painters’ Union, said building ( workers and painters were the hardest hit. The numbers were still up for negotiation with plant managers. “They have called for volunteers and it has not been decided who will go,” said Mr O’Connell. The two 'unions: he represented expected to hear from plant managers next week. A redundancy agreement had been reached, but not signed. Mr Norman Dewes, the union group’s advoccate - in the talks with Waitaki, was not available for comment. The Wellington secretary of the Building Workers’ Union, Mr Murray Reed, said the proposed cuts amounted to a 50 per cent reduction in jobs for his members. The reductions were also coming in areas already hard hit by unemployment.