Nine-day takers hard to find

Prime Minister John Key said only "one or two" companies have signed up for his nine-day fortnight initiative to save jobs.

The revelation comes as two South Island polytechnics offer free or discounted training to people signing up for the scheme.

The nine-day fortnight initiative, announced by Key at the Job Summit this month, involves companies offering employees reduced hours rather than redundancy.

The Government pays the employee $62.50 for the enforced day off.

The scheme originally included mandatory retraining for employees for the free day, but this was later dropped.

Companies had not flocked to the scheme, Key said.

"At this stage, we know from the anecdotal feedback we have had behind the scenes, not directly from companies, that there are one or two at the moment looking very closely or potentially are over the line if they want to pull the trigger if you like," Key said yesterday.

He said companies were holding back from signing up to the scheme because it was a "last resort".

"It is running for about an 18-month period; a company can use the nine-day fortnight for six months of that, so I would not be surprised if you see companies who at the moment say: 'Look, I would like to hold on for as long as I can before I go on to the nine-day fortnight', and the reason for that, of course, is they cannot use it for 18 months (and) they are not sure how long the recession will last."

Key also said the Government planned to borrow $40 billion over the next three years to safeguard public sector jobs.

"We are preserving the vast bulk of public sector jobs," he said.

Aoraki Polytechnic, which operates in Timaru, Oamaru, Ashburton, Dunedin and Christchurch, and Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin have both said they will offer free or discounted training packages for employees on the nine-day fortnight.

The scheme was announced yesterday by Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics executive director Dave Guerin.

"We want to keep people in jobs, so we are happy to be able to sweeten the deal for employers and employees considering the nine-day fortnight," he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News