Inghams add to job-cuts reasons
INGHAM has outlined additional reasons for cutting 80 jobs from its chicken processing plant at Byron Bay after the credibility of the initial reason was challenged.
On Monday, Ingham announced 70-80 jobs were expected to be lost because the company had to reduce production to comply with Environment Protection Authority waste-water standards.
They stated the environmental restraints were not evident last April when they took over the plant from Sunnybrand.
However, the EPA said they had been in discussions with Ingham about waste-water treatment standards since before they took over.
In a statement to The Northern Star yesterday, Ingham stated that the EPA limitations were only one contributing factor to "the unavoidable restructure".
"Other constraints are posed by manufacturing facilities at the site and customer expectations nationally," the statement read.
Ingham said it did not expect any further job cuts in the near future.
"...but as with all commercial organisations this will depend on a number of external and market factors which will determine overall business sustainability," the statement read.
When the chicken factory was taken over by Ingham last year, the outgoing owner made a promise that no jobs would be lost.
Two months later, a number of salaried employees were made redundant and labour hire employees were discontinued.
