Westland Milk Products announced it was conducting a review of staff roles in February.
In a statement at the time, the company’s chief executive Toni Brendish said its «current structure, including staff roles», were not set up in the best way to deliver the results it wanted to achieve.
Officials from the dairy co-operative met with staff and union delegates at the Hokitika dairy factory on Thursday to discuss the next phase of the review.
In a statement to The Press on Friday, Brendish said the review had «not been a job cutting exercise simply to save costs».
«It’s a role review to ensure we have the right structure, the right roles and the right people in those roles to drive the company forward and achieve peak operational efficiency,» she said.
Brendish said staff and union representatives had been fully consulted throughout the process.
«Because this is a continuing process, rather than a one-off review, and has involved some staff redundancies, some staff re-deployed into different roles, and new roles created we are not commenting on the numbers or positions involved,» she said.
Dairy Workers Union assistant secretary Angus McConnell said union officials were aware that a «review of the laboratory» was happening and that the first phase had to go through consultation with staff and the union.
«There is a few changes that are being mooted and we have to go through those,» he said.
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McConnell said he could not comment on the number of redundancies, but union delegates who were present thought the meeting «went ok» and did not catch employees off-guard.
The union would follow its normal course of action and make sure those who were affected had job options.
Westland Milk recorded a $14.5 million after-tax loss for 2015-16.
Source: Stuff
Link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/94020410/redundancies-mooted-at-westland-milk-products-major-processing-plant
