KEY POINTS:
The Otago workforce took another big hit today when Cadbury Schweppes announced 145 staff faced redundancy at its Dunedin factory.
The company is restructuring production at three plants in Australia and New Zealand with the loss of a total of 330 jobs.
The company will invest $51m in the Dunedin factory, which will produce more boxes of assortments of chocolates.
The cuts, which will start being enforced in the new year, follow an announcement earlier in the year by appliance manufacturer Fisher and Paykel in Mosgiel that it was shifting production offshore at a cost of about 430 jobs.
Meat company PPCS also announced cuts of nearly 140 jobs as a result of downsizing at its Burnside plant and local knitwear firm Tamahine called time on about 50 jobs, saying deregulation made it too difficult to compete with cheap imports.
The Cadbury announcement comes after the company proposed international restructuring about a year ago.
Service and Food Workers Union southern region secretary Campbell Duignan said while staff were aware of such proposals, today's announcement was a shock.
"We had been led to believe there would essentially be a product line by product line assessment process made," he told NZPA.
"So we envisaged it would be a process that happened over time, but what they have clearly done is gone away and had a look at the whole operation and made some decisions about simply specialising production out of particular factories.
"Essentially, that's what they have announced today with the associated job loss on the one hand and capital investment on the other."
He said while staff were stunned, there appeared to be some acceptance, and it was positive that money was being invested in the plant.
"We're just upset that it's at the cost of so many jobs."
Mr Duignan said there was also cold comfort that the lay-offs would not be enacted for a few more months.
"In pretty poor circumstances it could certainly be worse," Mr Duignan said.
He said the union would now liaise with counterparts in Australia and work to try to minimise losses and the impact of losses.
Cadbury Schweppes managing director for confectionary in Australia and New Zealand, Mark Callaghan, said the changes were needed now in order to be able to remain competitive.
"When implemented, these changes would reduce complexity, remove duplication and improve capacity, allowing us to be more innovative and responsive to consumer needs," he said.
Mr Callaghan said the company realised the difficulties placed on the affected staff and would provide career planning and support services.
The ABC reported that more than 160 workers at Cadbury's Hobart factory would lose their jobs as part of the restructuring.
Production at the plant there was halted overnight and workers were told of the cuts this morning.
Anne Urqhart of Australia's Manufacturing Workers Union said the job losses would be felt across the state.
"It would be devastating for [the workers] and it would also create huge economic problems for Tasmania without that level and capacity of income going back into the community," she told the ABC.
- NZPA, NZ HERALD STAFF
