Minimum redundancy rights to protect workers

May 17, 2009
Media Release

Minimum redundancy rights needed to protect Kiwi workers during recession - EPMU

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union is calling on the government to implement minimum redundancy standards to help protect Kiwi workers from bearing the burden of decisions made by their employers’offshore headquarters.

The call follows redundancies made at US-owned timber company, Bright Wood, and the increased use of redundancy threats by multinational companies, such DHL, as a bargaining chip.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says minimum redundancy would send a clear message to multinational companies operating in New Zealand.

“Kiwi jobs are increasingly being left to the whim of overseas-based managers whose only focus is on immediate balance sheet. A minimum redundancy package would help put the cost of Kiwi job losses on that sheet.

“It would also make it very clear to employers that redundancy is not a bargaining chip that can be threatened to drive down workers terms and conditions and increase profits.

“Job losses happen in a recession but the full cost of those losses should not be worn by workers and their communities alone. Employers and especially multinational employers need to be made to share in the costs of their decisions and minimum redundancy would be a concrete step toward making that happen.”

The EPMU has campaigned for minimum redundancy for several years and, along with employer groups, was involved in the Public Advisory Group on Restructuring and Redundancy which recommended minimum redundancy standards to the government last year.

ENDS

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