Wood and TVNZ in court over $100,000 pay cut

Close-Up presenter Susan Wood will face TVNZ in court today over the state-owned broadcaster's attempt to cut more than $100,000 from her salary.

Contract negotiations between Wood and TVNZ are understood to have broken down three weeks ago after Wood was offered 25 per cent less than her current salary, believed to be $450,000.

The legal wrangling over Wood's salary is the second employment drama at TVNZ in less than one week - at the weekend chief executive officer Ian Fraser resigned alleging, and then later retracting, that the politically appointed board had been interfering with matters beyond its brief at TVNZ.

This morning, Wood, who is represented by high-profile lawyer Mai Chen, and TVNZ will meet at the Employment Relations Authority in Auckland.

Wood, who fronted Close-Up last night, and Ms Chen both declined to comment yesterday.

The role the TVNZ board has played in salary negotiations is likely to come under scrutiny, particularly how it has responded to Government pressure to end the "star culture" which saw TVNZ pay presenters salaries of up to $800,000.

It is understood that TVNZ has no issues with Wood - who was named presenter of the year at the annual Qantas Awards in May - or her performance and wants her to continue presenting Close-Up.

However, the broadcaster wanted her to accept a salary cut of more than $100,000.

A source told the Herald that Wood's present one-year contract had been agreed under exceptional circumstances - after Paul Holmes' sudden departure to Prime a year ago - which was why she had been able to command such a high salary.

Circumstances have since changed, especially after the fiasco over newsreader Judy Bailey's salary increase to $800,000 last December.

At the time, Prime Minister Helen Clark and Broadcasting Minister Steve Maharey made it clear that the "culture of extravagance" at TVNZ would not be tolerated and the TVNZ board was publicly chastised over agreeing to the increase.

It is understood that pressure to avoid a similar situation was behind the comparatively low salary - believed to be around $350,000 - offered to Wood.

Yesterday the fall-out over Mr Fraser's departure package continued with National Party broadcasting spokeswoman Georgina te Heuheu challenging TVNZ's decision to keep Ian Fraser on the payroll.

Although Mr Fraser resigned on Sunday he will continuing working at TVNZ for six months and will be paid $300,000 - half his annual salary, although he will not be working in the role of chief executive.

"They should not be paying him for work he isn't doing. And they certainly shouldn't be paying for two chief executives," Mrs te Heuheu said.