Rail and Maritime Transport Union organiser John Kerr, who has been at the forefront of a union campaign to keep jobs for for the 44 Hillside employees, said yesterday's confirmation was a "travesty for New Zealand's rail engineering industry".
The union blames KiwiRail's insistence on outsourcing contracts for rail manufacturing to overseas firms for the decision to cut 74 jobs from its engineering workshops at Hillside and Woburn, in Lower Hutt.
KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn announced on June 9 up to 40 jobs would be cut at Hillside, as part of a nationwide move to axe 70 jobs from its rail engineering and manufacturing operations.
Hillside employees were then left reeling at a meeting last Thursday, where they were told 44 workers would lose their jobs - the result of a consultation period with union delegates, who argued for a policy change to keep engineering contracts for New Zealand workers.
Twenty-six experienced employees at the Hillside Workshops took voluntary redundancy, while 18 others from the 170-strong workforce were told on Tuesday they were out of a job, Mr Kerr said.
The 44 were given "an opportunity" until 11am yesterday to argue their jobs should be retained, but their pleas had fallen on deaf ears, Mr Kerr said.
Redundant Hillside employee Wayne White said he believed nine employees had been unfairly targeted because they were on ACC for work-related injuries.
Mr Quinn has defended his management team, which was responsible for deciding which workers were to be made redundant.
He declined to discuss specific details out of "respect" to those affected, and said the process had been carried in a professional manner.
The redundant workers had a chance to be redeployed to other jobs within KiwiRail "should they so decide", Mr Quinn said.
Mr Kerr said the "one silver lining" from KiwiRail's redundancy deliberations was the decision to protect jobs for Hillside's 12 apprentices.
The 44 workers finished yesterday, but had received four weeks' pay in lieu of notice, one Hillside worker said.
• KiwiRail has ordered more Chinese locomotives, NZPA reported. Mr Quinn said the company signed a contract last month for a further 20 108-tonne DL locomotives from CNR Corp.
The diesel locomotives are identical to the 20 ordered in 2009. Those cost $75 million and were delivered in two stages: six last year and 14 which arrived at KiwiRail's Te Rapa depot recently.
The latest locomotives delivered were being commissioned to be progressively deployed on North Island freight routes.
