Only one Hawke's Bay job is known to union officials to be on the chopping block as part of Heinz Wattie's job cuts announced on Tuesday.
The news has emerged for workers at Heinz Wattie's Hastings operation, with union officials suggesting the company's 100 job cuts throughout New Zealand will focus on white collar workers in Auckland.
Heinz Wattie's announced it was implementing a new structure for its Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand businesses to make the company more flexible and efficient.
A total of 245 employees across Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand would be affected by the changes. Heinz Wattie's said 100 jobs would be lost throughout New Zealand. The Service and Food Workers Union's spokesman for the food sector, Chas Muir, said yesterday he'd spoken to Heinz Wattie's management about the cuts. He said there were only two workers affected by the 100 job losses who were covered by the union's collective employment agreement - one in Hastings and one in Christchurch.
The workers were both "front line" engineers and they had been notified.