40 jobs go from Hawke's Bay roading

Up to 40 people working in the road contracting sector in Hawke's Bay have been made redundant over the past few weeks as a lack of work begins to take its toll on the industry nationally.

Higgins Contractors Hawke's Bay's surfacing manager Richard Jardine said the company had to reduce its staff numbers due to a lack of available forward work.

"Our workload fluctuates due to the seasonal nature of what we do. Unfortunately we have had to let some staff go much earlier than traditionally expected, due to the sudden reduction in workload," Mr Jardine said.

Hawke's Bay Today understands about 30 casual staff from the company were now looking for work.

That number was on top of the 12 staff Russell Roads manager Chris Russell had to make redundant last week because there was not enough work on the books.

"Each one of these men and ladies have worked really hard over the years on our roads and deserve to be treated better than this. Like most people they are struggling as it is." Mr Russell said.

Mr Russell had earlier pleaded for council and government agencies to free-up the $24 million of funding available for capital roading projects through the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).

The next round of three-year public roading projects won't go out for tender until after July 1.

"I wish the people who make these decisions were in my office on Monday to see the [staff] faces. It makes me really angry, especially when the government said they were going to make jobs a priority and they then cut off the funds like this."

Hastings mayor Lawrence Yule raised the issue at Hastings District Council's meeting last week when he asked council officers to look at advancing work which could be put out to tender for the road contracting industry.

"What we are trying to do is look at work we were going to do in July and bring it forward three months, I'm not sure if we can do that but I think we have to take a look to see if it's possible," Mr Yule said.

"There is a work period for roading contractors which goes up to the end of May. After that the winter weather comes in and conditions are unfavourable for them to work," he said.

"So it's no use releasing a whole lot of contracts in July if the work can't be done."

The council recorded a favourable variance in its operational budget for the six months to the end of December 31, 2011, and it was suggested the extra cash could be used on roading projects.

The council's group asset manager David Fraser said there had been a few roading projects put off which could be revisited next year. But he asked the committee to be cautious about how the extra revenue was spent.

"You may remember that a few years ago we borrowed $3 million towards reconstruction on footpaths, which went out as extra work for contractors," Mr Fraser said.

"The time is coming when we have to start paying that back," he said.