Unions taking Air NZ to court over job cut proposal

EPMU secretary Andrew Little

Unions representing 617 people to lose their jobs at Air New Zealand are taking the airline to court in a bid to slow down the job losses.

Air New Zealand in October announced plans to outsource heavy engineering overseas, with 617 New Zealanders to go in the exercise.

But Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) national secretary Andrew Little today said the union and the Aviation and Marine Engineers' Association had filed a legal action in Auckland in a bid to gain more time for consultation.

"Getting rid of Air New Zealand's heavy engineering capacity is a huge step -- not only for the company, but for the country as well," Mr Little said.

"This is a decision that should not be rushed, and we are asking the authority to tell Air New Zealand to slow down the decision-making process."

He said the airline had declined requests for further consultation.

The unions were asking the courts to stop the 58-day decision-making process and to order "proper consultation" over the issues, Mr Little said.

EPMU believes the plan to outsource engineering work overseas is a short-sighted response to cyclical economic issues and will mean the loss of skilled workers overseas and weaken New Zealand's balance of payments.

The Government, majority shareholder of Air New Zealand, has said it will not step in to subsidise jobs at the airline.

Air New Zealand's chief executive Rob Fyfe has said the airline looked long and hard at ways to keep its long-haul engineering maintenance staff before deciding on the job losses.

"For the past two years we have had an aggressive marketing campaign around the globe looking to attract more long-haul work to Air New Zealand Engineering Services in order to sustain the level of business in that area," Mr Fyfe told a shareholders' meeting in October.

But a review in the past 12 months had shown declining demand from both Air New Zealand and external customers for wide-body heavy maintenance or large fan aero machine maintenance, he said.

Sending the work to either Europe or Asia could save more than $100 million after restructuring costs over a five-year period, Mr Fyfe said.

- NZPA