Wood describes stress over salary cut

Susan Wood said she started shouting at her children. File picture / Nigel Marple

Close Up presenter Susan Wood said today she has had an "appalling few weeks" over plans to cut her salary by $100,000.

She told the Employment Relations Authority in Auckland pay negotiations with TVNZ had affected her sleeping and eating and she had shouted at her children in a way she never had before.

That made her ashamed.

Wood has taken TVNZ to the authority after TVNZ offered her a $350,000 "take it or leave it" salary -- down $100,000.

The authority heard informal evidence from head of news and current affairs Bill Ralston.

He said he was acting under instructions from chief executive Ian Fraser that the board would not continue her $450,000 salary.

He told the authority that $350,000 was the "absolute ceiling" the board would approve.

Ralston also read from notes he made at a meeting that Wood should have a reassurance that she had a future with TVNZ.

"We wanted an ongoing relationship," Ralston said.

He said the $450,000 she was paid was in recognition of the high-risk the programme had.

It was new and an experimental programme, following the much-publicised departure of Paul Holmes who went to Prime.

The hearing is expected to continue.

- NZPA