Thirty-five jobs will go at Gunns as the company continues to battle a downturn in demand for timber products.
A Gunns spokesman confirmed that voluntary redundancies were being offered but would not comment further.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union secretary Scott McLean said 14 jobs would be slashed in the wood-fibre section of the business with 21 lost in administration and plantations.
Mr McLean said he suspected that enough workers would volunteer for redundancies by the October 2 deadline and he doubted that Gunns would have to force anyone out.
“The Australian dollar keeps climbing the ladder and with the softening in wood-fibre product internationally, I think they saw it coming – it wasn’t a surprise for workers,” Mr McLean said.
He said it would be tough to get another job within the forestry industry at the moment and that was why it was imperative for Gunns to build its controversial $2.2 billion pulp mill.
“This wouldn’t be happening if the mill was under construction or operating because there would be 4 million tonnes of chips in and 1 million tonnes of paper out year in, year out,” Mr McLean said.
“There would be jobs for everyone.”
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Rachel Williams, Examiner
