Union questions Murray Goulburn job losses

The National Union of Workers is calling on dairy processor Murray Goulburn to justify its latest job cuts.

The company is culling 72 positions across Victoria, with 38 to go at Cobram, eight at Kiewa and four at Rochester.

It comes after the co-operative slashed 200 jobs about the same time last year.

Union organiser Neil Smith says urgent talks will be held with management at Cobram on Monday.

"It's very significant especially when there were redundancies last year, it's not normal that a company would have redundancies sort of year on year," he said.

"At Rochester as well they have been cut to the bone, so to take four or five positions, again it needs to be justified."

Mr Smith says the latest retrenchments are far from a done deal.

He says he believes the smaller of the company's two plants at Cobram will certainly lose jobs.

"The smaller site ... there's only 60 workers there and there's talk of up to 10 in that area alone," he said.

"That's a very significant percentage and we obviously have questions around that but we really need to meet with the company on Monday to find out where, what and why."

Murray Goulburn issued a statement earlier this week, saying the cuts were as a result of its "ongoing commitment to improving efficiency, productivity and cost competitiveness".

Council response plan

The Moira Shire Council has begun work on linking the retrenched workers with government and employment agencies.

The council's executive manager for business and innovation, Bruce Connolly, says fortunately for Cobram, several local employers are looking to expand.

He says the council's response plan has helped in the past dealing with Murray Goulburn job losses.

"It does and the feedback we have is it gives people some information that they probably didn't know where to look, particularly in relation to personal finances," he said.

"In a couple of cases we have matched people up with new jobs and in one case we actually helped someone start their own business."

Source: ABC News, 23 August 2013