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Rising energy costs were a contributing factor to three years of losses at the Penrose mill, the company said. Photo: AFP The country's largest paper and pulp company is considering closing its paper recycling mill in Auckland because power prices are too high. In a statement, Oji Fibre Solutions says its Penrose mill has suffered three years of losses caused by a number of issues including rising energy costs. Chief executive Dr Jon Ryder said the company has looked at improving technology to save money but it hadn't worked. The company could manage its supply of recycled paper for box making and wastepaper collection with other assets, he said. But closing the Penrose mill would reduce capacity to produce recycled paper and increase wastepaper sent offshore. Oji would begin consultati...

Lyttelton Port. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon The Maritime Union is concerned about Lyttelton Port Company in Christchurch's approach to mandatory fitness tests for employees The assessments were introduced at the end of July, recommended by accident investigators after a staff member was killed on the job in 2022 Lyttelton Port Company says it has undertaken consultation with staff and unions The Maritime Union is concerned about Christchurch's Lyttelton Port Company's approach to mandatory fitness tests for employees. The assessments have been brought in following the death of a staff member, Don Grant, while on the job in April 2022. Grant died when he was struck and killed by coal being moved from the port via a conveyor belt and loaded onto a cargo ship by a jet-slinger. At the time...

By Marty Sharpe of The Employment Relations Authority said Japanese Car Parts Ltd must pay a former employee more than $50,000. Photo: SUPPLIED A large Auckland car parts company must pay a former employee more than $50,000 after its director unfairly targeted her. Courtney Brooker resigned from Japanese Car Parts Ltd after saying she "simply couldn't take it anymore". Among numerous other breaches, the company told Brooker to take lunch breaks at her desk and made her come to work to prove she was ill. A young worker who was told to take meal breaks at her desk and to come to work to prove she was sick will be paid $50,290 by the company that constructively dismissed her. Courtney Brooker, 21, was employed by Japanese Car Parts Limited (JCP) in Auckland from 1 Au...

Photo: JOAN CROS / NurPhoto via AFP McDonald's employees are running into trouble when attempting to receive money owed to them, Unite Union says. The fast food giant has started paying out holiday pay owed to tens of thousands of staff almost five years since it agreed to. In November 2019, Unite Union announced it had reached a deal with McDonald's to go back 10 years to reimburse employees over a payroll botch-up. McDonald's was one of hundreds of companies caught up by payroll systems incorrectly calculating holiday pay. On its website this week, the company said it had been given approval by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to begin remediation. It said current and former staff who worked during the remediation period between 2009 and 2019 should go to an online p...

Photo: RNZ "Heads should roll" at the Reserve Bank if it decides to move the official cash rate this month, when economic data has broadly moved in line with its forecasts, one economist says. Calls have been heating up for a cut this month as the economy looks increasingly weak. Data on Wednesday showed the unemployment rate hit 4.6 percent in the June quarter, just under economist forecasts of 4.7 percent but in line with the Reserve Bank's most recent prediction. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said when the Reserve Bank forecast that level of unemployment for June, it was alongside interest rate forecasts that did not include a drop in the official cash rate (OCR) until August 2025. "Unemployment has done roughly what they thought, inflation is slightly better than they though...