Plunket staff waiting for outcome of job cuts proposal

We know that the changes we are making to our organisation can be unsettling for many people.

Stephen Lavery, Plunket operations manager

Taranaki staff working for the country’s largest provider of free support services for children under five are waiting to learn if their jobs are safe.

Plunket is consulting staff over a proposal to axe 50 jobs in central regional centre.

Plunket spokeswoman Jen Rich said while the proposal was for 53 jobs to be made redundant nationwide, 37 roles would be created.

Rich was unable to comment on what this would mean for Taranaki.

‘‘The consultation is only a proposal at this stage – a proposal is by no means a decision and there is still some way to go before decisions are made,’’ she said in a statement.

Staff affected by the redundancies would be reassigned to new jobs wherever possible, Rich said.

The consultation comes just four months after Labour promised funding of 100 more Plunket and Tamariki Ora nurses.

No Plunket centres would close and families could continue Plunket’s services as usual, Rich said.

One worker, who did not want to be named, said staff were told about the announcement earlier this week via a Skype meeting.

‘‘They are cutting these roles to the most rural and vulnerable communities to have more people working out of centralised hubs which have never even been to these communities, don’t know the wha¯ nau and cannot relate to the struggles within everyday life,’’ the worker said.

While many administrative roles were expected to be made redundant, the loss of some community roles came as a shock to staff, they said.

‘‘Admin staff knew this would come as everything is changing over to a computerised system, so all paper handling is finished, but the community workers had no idea.

‘‘It’s absolutely rubbish. We’ve worked so hard for our communities for all these years and it just makes us feel horrible.

Many of Plunket’s services are run and organised by a large volunteer base and, the worker said, Plunket was looking to replace the lost jobs with more volunteers.

Most of jobs affected are permanent roles.

A briefing document shared with staff said the proposed redundancies are part of Plunket changing its legal restructure to a charitable trust from an incorporated society on January 1.

The redundancies will also reduce costs, the document said.

In a note to staff, Plunket regional operations manager for the central region, Stephen Lavery said: ‘‘We know that the changes we are making to our organisation can be unsettling for many people.’’

‘‘One of the overarching goals of Plunket’s transformation programme is to organise the delivery of our services in a way that maximises the impact of each dollar Plunket spends.

‘‘This will ensure Plunket is directing its resources on where it can make the biggest difference and provide a more consistent level of service to families and wha¯ nau across Aotearoa New Zealand,’’ Lavery said.