Friday, June 07, 2013

Dunedin Book shop jobs on the line


By Chris Morris on Fri, 7 June 2013


Left - The University Book Shop on Great King St. Photo from ODT files.

University Book Shop staff in Dunedin are said to feel ''betrayed'' after being handed redundancy notices yesterday and invited to reapply for their jobs.
Rod Morris, the husband of one staff member, told the Otago Daily Times his wife and 20 other workers had been given the news by the bookstore's manager, Phillippa Duffy, yesterday.
Mrs Duffy has been in the role only since Christmas, replacing long-serving manager Bill Noble. Seven staff appointed by her since then were among those given notice yesterday, Mr Morris said.
The bookstore, owned by the Otago University Students' Association, was understood to have been facing financial challenges, but was not expected to close, he said.
Instead, staff who were not too ''shocked and stunned'' would be able to apply for new jobs at the store, which were to be advertised, although the number of positions on offer was expected to be reduced, he said.

Mrs Duffy confirmed last night when contacted an ''employment process'' had begun, although she was reluctant to discuss details while it was under way.
The business employed 22 full-time, part-time and casual staff in the main store and in a second, smaller branch within the University of Otago campus, which opened earlier this year, she said.

Financial pressures fuelled by the growth of online book sales meant changes were needed to deliver a ''modern retail structure to respond to a modern retail world''.
That was expected to take months and result in a reduction in the 19 full-time equivalent positions spread between the two stores, but Mrs Duffy would not say by how much.
UBS is a Dunedin institution that has been operating since the 1950s - and since 1962 in its present location. It is one of the oldest independent bookshops in New Zealand.
Mrs Duffy said she was well aware of the store's ''much loved and iconic'' status, but there were no plans to close.
''This isn't a bookstore in decline.''

Mr Morris told the ODT that staff who received their notices yesterday felt ''utterly betrayed''. He worried key staff, including his wife and five others with more than 20 years' experience each, could be lost.
''There's a huge amount of knowledge accumulated in those staff,'' Mr Morris said.

Mrs Duffy said that was ''not something I'm aiming for'', but exactly how many staff would go would depend in part on who wanted to stay.
Mrs Duffy's appointment came after long-serving UBS manager Bill Noble retired last year after 34 years running the store.
Speaking to the ODT at the time, he worried about the threat to bookstores posed by online booksellers using ''predatory pricing''.

''No-one's come up with the silver bullet yet,'' he said. 

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