Dozens of workers about to be laid off from a Southland timber mill have no collective employment agreement and will get no redundancy pay.
Milling company Bright Wood, at Otautau about 40km northwest of Invercargill, has announced it is closing the mill and 99 jobs will be lost.
Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union national industry organiser for timber Alan Clarence said the staff, half of whom were union members, were given four weeks' notice.
They would be paid for those weeks if laid off immediately, but otherwise would stay until the remaining work ran out, meaning there could be no severance pay at all.
Another EPMU representative said the union had fought for a collective agreement but the company had made it as difficult as possible.
Bright Wood New Zealand is owned by Bright Wood US and all the timber processed at the mill is exported to the United States.
The news of the closure came as a directive from management in the US on Monday at 1pm.
"The company has no community stake-holding or responsibilities, they've basically plundered and bailed," Clarence said.
"The fact that we were not consulted about this at all shows how little the company values its workers."
Bright Wood president Kevin Stovall said the strong dollar and "aggressive" tactics by the Reserve Bank to curb consumer spending were hurting the export sector.
Rapidly rising electricity costs and increased operating costs resulting from the introduction of a fourth week of compulsory leave this year were also cited as reasons for the demise of the mill.
- NZPA
