Westpac, the bank that has put clothing manufacturer Lane Walker Rudkin into receivership is saying there is no money to cover the redundancy entitlements or unpaid holiday pay of workers who have lost their jobs in the process, and ’someone else’ will have to be held accountable. The Westpac Union Council has written to the bank asking them to meet with the National Distribution Union, which represents LWR workers, and to try to protect jobs, but to no avail. NDU southern region secretary Paul Watson told Stuff.co.nz that a worker who had worked at LWR for 18 years would probably have built up redundancy entitlements of about $16,000, while someone there for 30 years would be owed closer to $30,000.

The NDU has been holding cake stalls outside Westpac branches to raise money for the redundant workers and highlight Westpac’s role in the redundancies. So far stalls have raised over $1,300. NDU secretary Laila Harre says that if this amount can be raised by a modest cake stall then Westpac and the government could be doing more.

We are hopeful that the government will come through with the funds needed for a resource centre that has been set up by the workers to help them with job search and other needs over the next few months. So far Westpac have offered nothing. If LWR in receivership cannot guarantee the holiday and redundancy pay owing to these workers, then Westpac and the Government need to do something more concrete to help the workers affected.

The unions approach has come under criticism, one blogger stated that “Harre is in cloudcuckooland if she really thinks this is going to happen.” adding that the solution would be for Lane Walker Rudkin to be taken into public ownership. Nearly 300 jobs are still at risk in the company.