WELLINGTON (Pacnews) — Air New Zealand has again backed away from outsourcing plans, telling finance workers their jobs won’t be moved to India or Fiji.
Air New Zealand had previously announced about 70 finance workers would face the chop, expecting to save about NZ$2 million ($1.4 million) by sending the jobs overseas.
The company originally hoped to move the jobs to Fiji but after the military coup in the country chose India as an alternative.
“We have now formed a view that India would not meet our requirements, so the outsourcing proposal has been withdrawn and this was communicated to staff earlier this week,” a statement from the airline said
The backdown comes after the airline earlier this month announced it would not go ahead with plans to outsource the jobs of about 1,700 check-in staff and loading staff to save up to NZ$20 million ($14.7 million).
That move was abandoned after a deal with unions allowed them to save costs by changing work conditions.
Jill Ovens from the Service and Food Workers Union said the latest move is good news for many of the finance staff.
She said the decision not to push ahead with the outsourcing came because of difficulties in contracting work to other countries, and because of pressure on the airline from the government.
Air New Zealand is 80.4 percent owned by the New Zealand government.