TOURISM HOLDINGS LIMITED
24 February 2010
Auckland, New Zealand
THL has today announced that it will make a one-off staff payment equivalent to 1.5 percent of each employees annual wages or salary.
The payment, to be made in early March, will coincide with the lifting of a wage and salary freeze across the group.
The Chief Executive Officer, Grant Webster, said the payment was to be made as a matter of fairness and to maintain good faith with staff and union negotiators, following a more rapid than expected improvement in the groups financial performance.
"When the wage freeze was announced last year and agreements were reached with union negotiators it was based on our expectation that the group would not be profitable in the current financial year, and no dividends would be paid to shareholders. Data to that effect were shared in confidence with union negotiators.
In the event, the group has performed better than expected, earning a small profit and declaring a modest dividend. We believe a one-off payment to the staff is appropriate to uphold the integrity of the agreements negotiated last year."
Mr Webster said the 1.5 percent payment was close to the official Labour Cost Index for the relevant period and a fair reflection of what staff had forgone due to the wage freeze. The payment will apply to virtually all the groups 700 staff, with the exceptions being those whose employment agreements (which were negotiated prior to the start of the wage freeze in July 2009) included a wage increase during the 09/10 year.
Mr Webster cautioned that the payment should not be regarded as establishing new benchmark levels for future wage movements, or as an indicator of substantial profit growth. "We remain a long way off the required level of financial performance, and tourism markets remain difficult and highly competitive,"
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