Redundancies at Air NZ jet centre

By Felicity Anderson, Nzoom.com Business News Editor

Friday 19th October 2001

The jet engine service centre in Christchurch is shedding staff because of the slump in the aviation industry following the terrorism attacks on the United States.

The centre employs 350 people and the Engineers Union says it understands the centre wants to cut around 50 staff through voluntary redundancies.

The centre is jointly owned by Air New Zealand and the American jet engine makers, Pratt and Whitney. It overhauls jet engines and successfully tenders for work from airlines around the world.

The Engineers Union says of the 350 staff, 200 are members of the union.

The union's South Island Secretary, Jed O'Connell, says airlines around the world are contracting because of the drop in air travel, so the demand for engine work is fallingO'Connell says the staff have been told how many their employer wants to cut through voluntary redundancy.

He says the centre is looking for more work, but if that is not successful an additional 40 to 50 staff may have to be cut later in the year. Meantime, they have been told how much they will get if they leave voluntarily, and were given until midday today to make the decision.

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