Cheap labour in Thailand is behind a decision to lay off more than 300 workers at a Queensland fridge factory, New Zealand whiteware manufacturer Fisher & Paykel says.
The closure of the 20-year-old plant on Thursday comes just weeks after Australian-based clothing maker Pacific Brands announced it would shift 1,850 jobs to China.
Fisher & Paykel vice-president of investor relations Paul Brockett said that cheap labour in Thailand was a key factor in the decision, flagged a year ago, to close the plant which employed 340 people to build 120,000 fridges a year.
"Most of our competitors are already producing in low-cost countries and have been for many, many years," Mr Brockett said in Auckland.
"It's very hard to compete when your main opposition is already operating in these low-cost labour countries."
Low-skilled Thai workers are paid about $A2 an hour (NZ$2.40), 10 times less than what an Australian working in the same job would earn, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union estimates.
Fridges made at Fisher & Paykel's Rayong plant in Thailand will be sold in Australia duty-free because of a free-trade agreement, and will also be exported to New Zealand, the United States and Britain.
Fisher & Paykel will also close factories in the US and New Zealand, where it makes ovens and dishwashers.
Official data shows Australia's manufacturing sector is facing its worst downturn since the early 1980s.
The government expects the jobless rate to climb above 7% by mid-2010 with 300,000 jobs to be lost.
