Judge says CHH must consult workers at mill

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Carter Holt Harvey's restructuring plans for its Kinleith pulp and paper mill are in limbo after an Employment Court order to halt mass layoffs.

Judge Graeme Colgan ruled yesterday that the company must spend at least 28 days consulting employees and their unions over its plan to lay off 381 of the mill's workforce of 770 while contracting out maintenance and stores operations.

In his ruling, issued from the court in Auckland, he said the company acted "other than in good faith" by starting a consultation process when its contracting-out plan was already well formed.

His full judgment will not be available until next week but Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union secretary Andrew Little said the judge also chided the company in a summary of his findings for failing to meet information requests by the unions.

The judgment does not prevent the company from laying off staff once it complies with its consultation obligations, but Mr Little said his union believed the existing workforce could meet cost-saving objectives if given a chance.

"We have tried time and time again to get the company to talk to us about what it wants and how it can be achieved by the workers but it has refused," he said last night.

CHH Kinleith chief executive Brice Landman said the company had arranged about 30 meetings to consult workers but no one had turned up.