Job losses at Agriquality needless

The restructuring of its On-Farm Service business proposed by Agriquality Limited will lead to job losses which need not have happened, PSA national secretary Richard Wagstaff said today.

“PSA expressed its concern many months ago about the situation of two state owned enterprises – Agriquality Limited and Asure New Zealand Ltd – competing for the same area of service delivery. The delivery of TB testing was traditionally the domain of Agriquality. Asure New Zealand Ltd started tendering for, and was awarded, TB testing contracts even though it did not have the necessary skills and resources. As a result of this, Agriquality is now forced to restructure and lay off staff.”

“PSA has consistently questioned the wisdom of two separate profit-only motivated companies being in direct competition with each other.”

Richard Wagstaff said while restructuring and change are not inherently negative in themselves when the outcome is sensibly planned and enhances service delivery, in this case the process seemed to be a needless commercial exercise which had little regard for staff or quality of service.

Richard Wagstaff said the PSA had expressed its concern to the Minister for State Owned Enterprises in June.

© Scoop Media