NZ Post cuts up to 400 jobs

Nearly 400 jobs at New Zealand Post Group have fallen victim to the recession.

Acting group chief executive Sam Knowles said there had been 237 redundancies in the first half of this year, 86 jobs were lost through attrition, and 61 fixed term contracts not renewed.

Not all the news was bad, with 90 new jobs created.

Mr Knowles said the recession, an unprecedented mail volume decline and challenging trading conditions were to blame for job cuts.

The group had about 10,000 permanent staff.

Approximately 90 percent of total job reductions were in the postal services business, and 72 percent of that block took voluntary redundancy.

"Different businesses within the Group are being affected in different ways and each is responding appropriately," Mr Knowles said.

"While the postal services and data processing and management activities have been adversely affected, Kiwibank is experiencing substantial growth and has added 89 people to its payroll during the period."

Further job cuts were possible as Group businesses continued "to manage through a tough commercial environment".

Today's figures did not include 74 potential redundancies arising from plans to close the Auckland call centre.

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) says it has been working closely with the State Owned Enterprise to minimise job losses.

"EPMU officials and members have been in constant consultation with New Zealand Post and have had an independent analyst look at Post's books to ensure that cuts are only made where they can be justified by falling mail volumes," said EPMU postal and logistics organiser Anna Kenney.

"International mail volumes are collapsing and we can't control that. It means some of our members are losing their jobs but what we can do is make sure that job losses are minimised and that the focus of the redundancy process is getting the best deal possible for the worker involved," she added.

She said along with negotiating a four day working week scheme, the union has negotiated a series of conditions including clauses that give most long service workers priority ranking if they opt for voluntary redundancy.  Other compensations include an eight hundred dollar retraining and job placement payment for workers who lose their jobs and a six month wage maintenance period with a special one-off payment for members who lose significant core earnings of three percent or more through major roster changes. 

- NZPA