Arguably happier times in August this year when staff posed for the grand opening of Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale. Photo / Mitre10
Arguably happier times in August this year when staff posed for the grand opening of Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale. Photo / Mitre10
An owner of the biggest group of Mitre 10 Mega stores in New Zealand says 33 people are leaving. Most are being made redundant but the business is also hiring 20 staff after rosters were readjusted.
Cam Caithness, managing director of Riviera Hardware Holdings, cited trading conditions as a reasonfor layoffs at Mitre 10 Mega Albany, Mitre 10 Mega New Lynn, Mitre 10 Mega Warkworth, Mitre 10 Whangaparāoa and Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale.
“We needed to realign rosters to reflect current trading conditions. Despite every effort being made to redeploy people, this has unfortunately resulted in 33 people leaving the business, most by way of redundancy and a handful by choice,” he said.
On Wednesday, a staff member at the new $30 million Silverdale store spoke out against layoffs, saying many people were going.
Caithness said then that store had “deployed the majority of the team into adjusted rosters”.
That article prompted a second disillusioned Mitre 10 Mega Silverdale staff member to express upset, saying the layoffs were far more widespread.
Cam Caithness of Riviera Hardware Holdings.
Bill Bradford of First Union said the union didn’t have an overall relationship with Mitre 10 because it was a co-operative.
Some union members were employed by the Silverdale store but retail sector layoffs were relatively rare, especially at this time of the year and he expressed surprise, given the store only opened four months ago.
Last Friday, the Herald published a power list of Mitre 10 owners where Riviera emerged as the single largest with not only the five shops but a prenail business, Columbus Coffee cafes, Riviera Imports and the Riviera Distribution Centre.
Riviera said it employs more than 700 people and owns 5.76 per cent of Mitre 10′s parent company.
A letter sent to one of those laid off at Silverdale outlined changed rosters and possible redundancies in the showroom, plumbing, paint and seasonal specialist areas.
One Silverdale staffer resigned, saying although his position was not being made redundant, he disliked working there.
“I was here from day one. But I was being asked to do jobs which were outside my role,” he said, citing breaking down wooden pallets which meant he was injured because they were heavy.
The man said he had been asked to lift heavy items in the store up to 100kg and deal with inward goods which needed to be immediately unloaded from trucks but his job title and description had nothing to do with performing such tasks.
“I was told there had to be teamwork, but I said I wasn’t staying. I was disillusioned.”
Five left on Wednesday this week alone “and they’re different ages, genders, nationalities. It’s a rare situation how so many people are leaving because of the problems”, he said.
“Another 20 people have been made redundant,” he said, citing various roles including customer services at the Silverdale and Albany.
“These are people with mortgages and families and babies.”
Asked if he had another job, he said he was “desperately” looking for work to support his family.
This time of the year was difficult with Christmas and New Year looming so he expects to take on a temporary role.
Andrea Scown is Mitre 10′s chief executive, based at the Albany headquarters. She is the first woman to head the business.
The other staff member who was made redundant from Silverdale and spoke out on Wednesday got a letter from store manager Sam Singh, saying a consultation process had been launched with staff on November 2.
That proposed changes including roles being disestablished.
The letter said feedback was sought but the decision had been taken to move to a new structure and that staffer said the role held was “disestablished”.
If it wasn’t possible to find a new role at Silverdale, employment with Riviera would end by redundancy so the letter gave notice of that.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 23 years, has won many awards, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
