The company, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union and employees volunteering to take redundancy are still discussing and working through the process, EPMU organiser John Gardner said yesterday.
"We are now going through a process where their [employees'] individual circumstances are taken into account before they make final decisions," he said.
He could not say how many employees had volunteered.
That would not be known until the end of the month. In the meantime, the union was keeping in contact with the company.
Summit, which employs about 250 people, called for voluntary redundancies after discussing with the EPMU several options for restructuring, following a downturn in orders that had led to reduced hours since Christmas, that did not result in sufficient savings.
Employees wanted to retain the present 12-shift structure.
The Oamaru company, which is owned by Japanese company Sumitomo, exports to America, Australasia, Asia and Europe and has been facing reduced orders for some time, finding the market difficult with the New Zealand dollar high against the US dollar, and high prices for wool.
Summit said last week it needed to ensure it was running as leanly as possible in the present market conditions.
