The across-the-board wage reduction proposal is aimed at saving $500,000 as the company grapples with a severe downturn in work.
Neither the Council of Trade Unions nor the Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union were aware of such a large pay cut being suggested elsewhere in the country.
Dunedin EPMU organiser Mike Kirwood said the proposed 5% cut had been rejected by union members - almost 100 in number - but negotiations were continuing.
He understood Wickliffe was the first major southern company to ask for pay cuts, while most employers were offering a "nil increase" in present pay talks, and only a small number were considering up to 3% wage increases.
Wickliffe general manager of sales and marketing Steve Silvey yesterday said when contacted he estimated the printing sector in general was down about 40% in volume of work during the past two years.
"We have a robust plan to adapt to the current market. We have got to manage cash-flows carefully over the next few months."
The proposal to cut all staff wages as of August 1 would save the company about $500,000, he said.
During the past two years, Dunedin's printing sector has been hard hit, with costs, competition and technology driving closures and redundancies.
In early 2007, Wickliffe, which has been in business for 60 years, reduced its Dunedin production staff by more than half, eventually cutting 48 jobs from a total 70, because of increasing work generated from an earlier business acquisition in Auckland.
It moved production to Kaikorai Valley and retains a distribution centre in Mosgiel, employing about 70 people, with the balance of 210 in Auckland.
Mr Kirwood said "other options" were being proposed by union members, but they were yet to be fully presented to Wickliffe.
In April 2006, Wickliffe had 346 staff in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly yesterday said there was no evidenceof a trend emerging where employers were requesting staff take pay cuts.
EPMU national secretary Andrew Little yesterday said it was common at present for employers not to offer pay increases, but the suggested Wickliffe pay-cut proposal was "unusual".
