Fisher & Paykel jobs safe for the mean time

Auckland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Michael Barnett says he has been assured by Fisher and Paykel that it has no plans at this time to move its Auckland refrigerator production facility offshore.

This follows the announcement that F&P intends relocating its Dunedin cooker and dishwasher production overseas with the loss of 430 jobs.

The refrigeration manufacturing facility employs some 500 Aucklanders, including 150 engineers.

“The company has told me that the location of its production facilities is always under review, but there are no plans to relocate the Auckland plant. The company says it will have its hands full for quite some time shifting the Dunedin plant overseas.”

Mr Barnett says he accepts that there is a global trend for manufacturing to move to developing countries. “But my very real concern is that Fisher and Paykel says increasingly complex and expensive compliance costs have contributed to the Dunedin decision.”

“Government rules and regulations are more likely to destroy jobs than create them. To take a recent New Zealand example one can legitimately wonder about the cost in jobs of the decision by this Government to force employers to provide an extra week of annual leave.”