SHOP floor workers at Relyon, the Wellington-based mattress company, are expected to face nearly two months of short-time hours as business slows.

The now 90 shop floor workers - down from 194 at the end of September, 2024 - at the mattress company were put back on short-time last week, while salaried staff remain unaffected.

As business fluctuates throughout the year, Relyon employers have their hours cut on a regular basis, but this time, workers face the possibility of losing nearly a quarter of their pay until mid-July, a source has said. For some, hours have been reduced down from 38 to 30.5 a week, and even to 27.5 for others, they added.

The relapse to short-time hours this week promptly follows a period of short-time working which took place at the end of March for several weeks.

A source, who wishes to remain anonymous, has said that business is unusually slow for Relyon due to the M&S cyber-attack which took place over Easter. The major multinational retailer is one of the mattress company’s main trading partners.

The source said that moral on the shop floor is “unbelievably” low, adding that they expect many workers will hand in their notice in the coming weeks.

Managing director, Alan Chapman, said: “Market demand has fallen sharply across all customers over the last few weeks and therefore it is regrettable that we have introduced short-time working for production staff.

“The support from our employees is gratefully appreciated in what is hoped to be a short-term measure until such time as normal demand resumes.”

Established in 1858, the Wellington mattress company was bought out of administration in 2020 by Michco 2001 Ltd, which was formed by ex-Relyon Group chief executive Ian Topping with a number of private investors.