Former head of Pacific Brands Sue Morphet has taken a top job with lobby group Manufacturing Australia, provoking fears her appointment could signify more jobs will be sent overseas.
Morphet is one of Australia’s most controversial CEOs because of her reputation as a “job cutter” at Pacific Brands, and her appointment as the lobby group’s chairman on Tuesday has already concerned manufacturing union members.
She took on a risk as the chief executive of PacBrands in the middle of the GFC, taking the reins of a brutal, yet essential downsizing of the company, closing ten local factories and moving manufacturing to China. She also cut about 50% of the PacBrands workforce.
She also presided over a significant share price fall for the company. When she took over the company was worth $1.1 billion, and left behind a net worth of $539 million.
Michele O’Neil, the national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union, criticised the appointment in Business Day, saying she was a surprised to see that a local organisation would appoint someone who had gutted thousands of local jobs.
However, Morphet said she wasn’t looking to shed local jobs and again defended her decision to sack 1850 workers at PacBrands, saying that she did what she needed to do at the time.
“It was tough at Pacific Brands, it was tough for everybody. But we were up against the wall and we had decisions that we needed to make to save our company, which we did,” she told ABC’s 7:30 last night.