NZ management 'inept'

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Friday 14th September 2001

Council of Trade Unions president, Ross Wilson, has heaved a broadside at the private sector in light of Air New Zealand's (NZSE: AIRVA) financial woes.

Mr Wilson says the Ansett grounding is another example of director and management ineptitude in New Zealand.

"It is a bitter irony that this governance and management failure has occurred since the privatisation of Air New Zealand and the subsequent foreign ownership by Singapore Airlines and Brierley.

"The private sector in New Zealand has argued for less government ownership and regulation in commercial enterprise, yet the standard of private sector governance has been abysmal in far too many cases."

Mr Wilson claims large chunks of shareholder value have been wiped out from several major companies and says workers in New Zealand, and now Australia, are sickened by the substandard management skills being displayed.

"Considering the current focus on the knowledge wave it is high time that company directors and management lifted their own performance."

The CTU has sent a solidarity message to Australian Ansett workers, who are gathering at union meetings today.

Mr Wilson say he has also discussed with his Australian counterparts the situation at Melbourne airport, where Ansett workers blockaded a plane that Prime Minister Helen Clark was due to fly home on.

"The anger and frustration of Australian airline workers will be easily understood and shared by New Zealand workers, particularly those who fell victim to the collapse of the former Ansett New Zealand with a loss of 1100 jobs," he says.

"However, the CTU is concerned about any targeting of Helen Clark when essentially it is Air New Zealand directors and management who are at fault."

Comments from our readers

No comments yet