Ninety TVNZ staff to lose jobs

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One in 12 TVNZ workers will lose their jobs and 100 hours of locally made programmes will be axed in a move that could foreshadow lay-offs in other state-owned companies.

TVNZ chief executive Rick Ellis said the 90 redundancies were across the organisation, which employs 1090 people. They would account for a quarter of the $25million in cuts needed to meet a rapid fall in advertising revenue.

The announcement came as Prime Minister John Key said other state-owned enterprises could see redundancies as the Government sought increased financial performance in the face of the recession.

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Simon Power has called bosses to a meeting next month.

Concerns centre especially on the state power companies, though Mr Key said simply "whacking up" electricity prices to inflate returns would not be acceptable.

He sympathised with TVNZ workers who would lose their jobs, but said the Government would not revisit its decision to insist on a dividend this year.

"From the Crown's point of view, we have $200 million invested in Television New Zealand.

"If we don't receive a return on that equity and we don't receive the dividend, then that's less money the Crown has to pay for hospital beds, less money it has to pay its doctors and less money it has to pay its teachers.

"Our revenue is falling as well. The Crown is a huge employer, either directly or indirectly.

"The vast bulk of those employees are going to be retained, and in order for them to be retained, the Government will be operating multibillion-dollar deficits over the next few years.

"There are going to be some casualties along the way ..."

However, he said, TVNZ and other struggling companies could be allowed to recommend smaller dividends than normal to reflect the economic downturn. The Government could also lower its expectations of profits.

"Obviously, we're dealing with very difficult conditions. Private sector companies aren't making money at the moment either, so we can't expect of the ... government-owned companies something that's not being delivered by the private sector. That would be unfair."

Mr Ellis said the only TVNZ department left unscathed by the lay-offs was emerging business, which includes online services, because it was a big area of growth. The sales department faced limited redundancies.

All departments had been directed to cut budgets by a tenth, and cuts to commissioning would see local content fall by 3 per cent, or about 100 hours.

Although news and current-affairs staff faced layoffs, Mr Ellis said the programme lineup would not be changed.

He said his pay and that of other executives and senior managers would be frozen.

- © Fairfax NZ News