Australasian infrastructure giant Downer is shedding more than 7% of its Otago workforce, with 33 jobs to be lost from the more than 430 around the province.
Following a tip-off to the ODT about local staff attending meetings yesterday, Downers Auckland head office was contacted and responded with a statement, which has not appeared on either its website or ASX market announcements.
‘‘In order to meet the changing needs of the market, Downer has made the difficult decision to restructure our business in Otago which will result in a reduction of 33 roles,'' the statement said.
Attempts to obtain further information from the company were unsuccessful.
Amalgamated Workers Union representative Steve Scandrett said when contacted most of the 33 staff were union members.
While job losses could be expected across all divisions, the construction division, the largest, was likely to be hardest hit, he said.
Workers had redundancy provisions in their collective agreement and he expected Downer to honour those provisions.
The Downer statement said: ‘‘The changes in Otago reflect our need to build an agile business that can respond quickly to our customers' needs.
‘‘As this is an ongoing employment negotiation, we are unable to comment further.''
Downer employs more than 20,000 staff, mainly in New Zealand and Australia, but some of its more than 200 projects are in the Asia-Pacific region, with divisions including construction, transport, communications, utilities, mining, engineering and rail.
In the financial year to June, Downer booked sales of $A7.38 billion ($NZ8.19 billion), with an after-tax profit of $A200 million.
Its market capitalisation on the ASX yesterday stood at $A1.44 billion.
