Dozens of workers about to be laid off from a Southland timber mill have no collective employment agreement and face no relief in terms of redundancies.
Milling company Bright Wood, at Otautau about 40km northwest of Invercargill, has announced it is closing the mill and 99 jobs willbe lost as a result.
Otautau, a township of about 750 people is expected to suffer as a result of the closure and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) said there would be no relief in terms of redundancy payouts.
EPMU national industry organiser for timber, Alan Clarence, said the staff, half of whom were union members, were given four weeks' notice.
They would be paid for those weeks if laid off immediately, but otherwise would stay until the remaining work ran out, meaning there could effectively be no severance pay at all.
Another EPMU representative said the union had fought in the past to get members on to a collective agreement but the company had made it as difficult as possible.
Bright Wood New Zealand is owned by Bright Wood US and all the timber processed at the mill is exported to the United States.
The news of the closure came as a directive from management in the US yesterday at 1pm.
"The company has no community stake-holding or responsibilities, they've basically plundered and bailed," Mr Clarence said.
"The fact that we were not consulted about this at all shows how little the company values its workers and their union."
Bright Wood president Kevin Stovall said the strong New Zealand dollar and "aggressive" tactics by the Reserve Bank to curb consumer spending were hurting the export sector.
Rapidly rising electricity costs and increased operating costs resulting from the introduction of a fourth week of compulsory leave this year were also cited as reasons for the demise of the mill.
