Printing company asks employees to take pay cut

Printing company Wickliffe has asked its 290 employees in Dunedin and Auckland to take a 5 per cent pay cut.

The across-the-board wage reduction is aimed at saving $500,000 as the company grapples with a severe downturn in work.

Neither the Council of Trade Unions or Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union were aware of such a large pay cut being suggested elsewhere in the country.

Dunedin EPMU organiser Mike Kirwood said the proposed 5 per cent cut, to take effect from August 1, had been rejected by union members - almost 100 in number - but negotiations were continuing.

Wickliffe general manager of sales and marketing Steve Silvey said yesterday he estimated that the printing sector in general had been down about 40 per cent in volume of work during the past two years. "We have a robust plan to adapt to the current market. We have got to manage cashflows carefully over the next few months."

Dunedin's printing sector has been hard hit during the past two years with rising production costs, competition and use of digital technology contributing to closures and redundancies.

In early 2007, 60-year-old Wickliffe reduced by more than half its Dunedin production staff, eventually cutting 48 jobs from a total 70, because of increasing work generated from an earlier business acquisition in Auckland.

It moved production to Kaikorai Valley and retains a distribution centre in Mosgiel, employing about 70 people in total, with the balance of 210 in Auckland.

Kirwood said there were "other options" being proposed by union members, but they were yet to be fully tabled to Wickliffe and he declined to explain further.

Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said there was no evidence of a trend emerging where employers were requesting staff take pay cuts.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little said yesterday it was common at present for employers not to offer pay increases but the suggested Wickliffe pay cut was "unusual".

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES