Fletcher Building is to lay off 10 percent of its employees, which will equate to around 1000 workers throughout New Zealand.
Fletcher Building chief executive Ross Taylor said the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions was significant and the business needed to implement cost-saving measures.
"Like any business facing much lower revenue ahead, we need to reduce our spending to prepare for these tough times. Our first goal has been to implement cost-saving measures that would allow us to retain as many of our people as possible…
"While we looked at all parts of our business to remove costs, regrettably we believe we will not be able to support the same number of people. We have to make some very difficult decisions which include looking at reducing the number of people we employ by approximately 10 percent."
During New Zealand's lockdown Fletcher Building shut down over 400 sites at the end of March and restarted under alert level 3.
The restrictions meant Fletcher Buildings recorded a loss of $55 million for April, and their Australian operations had approximately a breakeven result. The number of people employed in Australia will drop by 500.
New Zealand employees will be retained until the wage subsidy ends on June 26 and every permanent employee will receive their full redundancy payment.
This comes after Fletcher Building announced they intended to slash employees wages in April by 70 percent.
But E tū union members were shocked the executive team only intended to take 15 percent pay cuts, and it was later increased to 30 percent.
