Big Island ranch
scaling back work force

Separation packages are offered
and layoffs may be necessary
at Parker Ranch

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

WAIMEA, Hawaii >> Most of the 76 employees at the 225,000-acre Parker Ranch on the Big Island are being offered voluntary separation packages as part of an economic restructuring of the ranch, spokeswoman Diane Quitiquit confirmed.

Depending on how many accept, layoffs are possible after the Feb. 28 deadline to respond to the packages, Quitiquit said. The ranch does not intend layoffs at present, she said.

Anyone laid off would receive the severance pay they were promised when they were hired, but without special bonuses of two years of benefits for long-term employees and four months of benefits for shorter-term ones, she said.

Some nervous employees have seen the changes as the beginning of the end of the ranch. The intent is the opposite, Quitiquit said.

"We are trying to take steps to be here for another 155 years. We see this as a kind of new beginning. We are committed to preserving the ranch," she said.

The assurances did not erase the nervousness of Puanani Joaquin, whose cowboy husband Brocky has worked for the ranch 14 years, not enough to qualify for the two extra years of benefits.

The other package would give the Joaquin family four months of extra benefits, but then they would have to move out of the Parker-owned house they rent for just $400 a month.

Parker's seven directors have already taken compensation cuts of 4 to 10 percent, Quitiquit said. Employees were told of the separation packages on Monday.

Employees from top management to cowboys, truck drivers and secretaries are affected. Only 25 of the 76 employees are classified as cowboys. All but seven, employed less than six months, are eligible.

There is no magic number of people the ranch needs to let go, Quitiquit said.

The ranch's problems include a projected drop in income from cattle operations of $600,000 this year, plunging cattle operations into the red. The ranch has been beset by four years of drought, the economic fallout of Sept. 11 terrorism, and a weakened world market for beef because of fears of mad cow disease in Europe.

Besides employee cost reductions, the ranch is working to increase revenues with two housing developments on 94 acres, eucalyptus plantings on 4,000 acres and on-ranch tourism, Quitiquit said.