Union officials and management at caravan and motorhome manufacturer CI Munro will meet today to try to resolve pay dispute issues which caused more than 80 staff to walk off the job on Tuesday.
The company, which is owned by Tourism Holdings, makes campers for well-known brands Maui
and Britz Rentals and employs more than 100 people.
Until this year it had been based in Otorohanga but growth had seen the company buy and build a new facility in Hamilton. It is now in the process of moving staff to the new site.
Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union representative Peter Cooper-Davies said staff had unanimously voted on Monday to walk off the job over concerns relating to pay, service leave, overtime benefits and disparity in pay rates between the old and new sites.
"We expected that employees would be paid the market rate for Hamilton when we moved there and it has been short of that. We have also discovered that some new employees who have been at the new site for less than a year are being paid more than people moving from Otorohanga with more experience," he said.
The staff walked out at lunchtime on Tuesday but decided to come back to work yesterday.
CI Munro general manager Paul Hebberd said the strike action had come as a surprise to the company as it was in the middle of ongoing talks with union employees over the annual pay review and relocation of the business.
Hebberd said it was a particularly busy time for the business and any strike action would affect the company's schedules.
He said the company had called in mediators for a meeting at 10am today which it is hoped would help resolve the issues as soon as possible.
Cooper-Davies said staff would consider more strike action if the issues were not resolved satisfactorily.
The strike action is thought to be the first walk-out since the company started in 1948. It has been a division of Tourism Holdings since 1995.
