Ex-clothing workers get part-payment

Jobless clothing workers pushed out of work by the closure of Bouzaid and Ballaben factories in Greytown and Pahiatua have received a part-payment from the liquidators of the firm.
Most of the 80 who lost their jobs have been paid a one-off, after-tax payment of $1250, well short of the $16,420 cap imposed on redundancy and holiday payments and in the case of long-term employees miles short of their actual entitlements under the terms of their employment contracts.
Many Bouzaid and Ballaben staff had served over 30 years and by the terms of their contracts should have been entitled to $25,000 or $30,000.
National Distribution Union president Robert Reid said yesterday the only good thing to be said for the pay cheques was that the worse-case scenario of the workers getting nothing at all had been avoided.
The payments made by BDO Spicers, liquidators of Bouzaid and Ballaben and the parent company Lane Walker Rudkin, represent an interim payment of 10 cents in the dollar and BDO Spicers has reserved the right to make or not make any future payments.
The former workers probably owe the payout they received this week to the fact staff had been afforded preferential status under the Companies Act 1993.
Had they been treated as unsecured creditors they would most likely have received nothing at all.
Although the winding up of Bouzaid and Ballaben happened several weeks ago, Mr Reid said the union was "trying to keep on their case as much as we can".
"We have just started a support network for both union and non-union members and are trying to determine what success they have had with finding new jobs."
Beth Regnault, of Greytown, who is a union liaison worker and was on the Bouzaid and Ballaben staff for 30 years, said some confusion over the payout had arisen because money had just been "popped into our bank accounts" without a covering letter having first been posted out with details.
"I telephoned them yesterday and have been told a letter should be arriving today."
Mrs Regnault said long-term workers had seen their redundancy and holiday entitlements firstly "slashed" to the capped amount and then presumably cut back to $1250.
A body blow affecting the payout had been the realisation the factory building and grounds in Greytown were not in Bouzaid and Ballaben ownership.
Ownership had been transferred some years back to Lane Walker Rudkin (N.Is.) Property Ltd that now means any proceeds from the sale of the factory or land would not benefit workers or other creditors of Bouzaid and Ballaben.
Mrs Regnault said the Greytown shop on West Street that sold clothing manufactured in the now-closed factory is still open, selling off stock that had remained unsold at the time the factory doors closed.
"I would say they will close the shop as soon as it is no longer profitable for them to keep it open."
Mrs Regnault said the union had made a payment of $200 to each of the workers who had belonged to it, to help tide them over.
She said some of the former factory workers had managed to get new jobs, mostly part-time jobs. "It all helps to keep some money coming in."
Others had signed up for computer courses and other educational courses to retrain themselves in the hope of getting jobs in the future.