Closure shows need for redundancy protection

August 18, 2009
Media Release

Tritec closure shows need for redundancy protections

News that Lower Hutt buggy manufacturer Tritec will be laying off 45 staff without redundancy compensation shows the urgent need for all parties to support Darien Fenton’s Redundancy Protection Bill, says the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union.

The Redundancy Protection Bill would provide minimum redundancy compensation for all workers, including the estimated 80% who have no redundancy protection in their employment agreement.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the treatment of Tritec workers shows how important redundancy protection is in a recession.

“The way our members at Tritec have been treated is a disgrace. We’ve tried repeatedly over the last year to get the company and the receivers Pricewaterhouse Coopers to agree to a redundancy deal but they’ve refused to even consider it.

“Some of these workers have been with Tritec for more than ten years, but they’re being sent out the door with no recognition of their service and nothing to tide their families over until they find a new job.

“Instead, the company has strung our members along for the last six months in the false hope they might be able to keep their jobs, when it’s now clear they were only kept on to finish off the company’s remaining orders and be dumped in the middle of a recession.

“It’s unethical behaviour like this that shows the need for Parliament to introduce basic redundancy protections in law. It won’t bring our members’ jobs back, but it will allow them to live with some basic security and dignity until they find a new one.

“That’s why it’s so important that all political parties back the Redundancy Protection Bill to select committee.”

The EPMU is New Zealand’s largest private sector union, representing 45,000 workers in eleven industries.

Darien Fenton’s bill is based on the report of the Public Advisory Group on restructuring and redundancy, which recommended the Government consider introducing minimum redundancy protections.

ENDS

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