Business / Covid 19

Fletcher pay cut talks nearing completion

12:31 pm on 2 April 2020

Fletcher Building says it hopes to wrap up consultations with staff on planned pay cuts by the end of the week.

Fletcher Building chief executive Ross Taylor. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook

The company wants to put about 9000 staff not working on gradually reducing pay over the next three months.

It's proposing they get 80 percent of base pay for the next four weeks, reducing to 50 percent for the next month, and 30 percent the month after.

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Fletcher chief executive Ross Taylor said it had to to act quickly because wages made up about two-thirds of its costs.

Taylor said the company was taking up the government wage subsidies and no-one will be paid less than $585 a week at any stage.

He says during the lockdown there'll be no forced redundancies, but can't guarantee there won't be as the business gets back into operation after the crisis.

Read more about the Covid-19 coronavirus:

Trade Me proposes cutting workers' hours

Trade Me has asked full time staff to reduce their hours by 20 percent each week for the next four weeks.

Chief executive Anders Skoe said a huge number of staff have agreed to the move, which would mean they're only paid for 32 hours a week.

He says he didn't take the move lightly, but it will help Trade Me get through to the end of the lockdown.

Trade Me has applied for the government wage subsidy, but Skoe says it doesn't cover its regular wage bill which is why it has taken this extra step.

He says it's one of many cost saving measures being put in place to ensure it can keep all its staff employed.