KEY POINTS:
Fisher & Paykel Appliances chief executive John Bongard is to have his pay cut by 7.5 per cent this year and senior executives will also face a drop of 5 per cent in an unprecedented move by a New Zealand company.
In the year to last March Bongard was paid $1,142,593. The drop will see his salary fall by more than $85,000 to $1,056,898.
Staff will also be asked to take one day off a month to help to avoid redundancies.
The day off can be taken as paid annual leave but those who choose not to will not be paid.
Bongard said this was an effective 5 per cent pay cut for staff and would be introduced across the company's global business.
"I think the situation is such that we have got a company full of extremely talented people but we have got to a stage where the recession requires us to do something. There is not a simple solution for us because when things come right we are going to need those people."
Staff had been supportive of the change as there was more concern about having job certainty.
"We won't avoid all redundancies by doing that but will help avoid the majority."
