‘Black day’ amid 1000 job cuts
Education and children’s ministries affected: PM says the Government is carrying out campaign promises
A net loss of 565 jobs set to go at the Ministry of Education have added to a total of more than 1000 job cuts announced within the public sector yesterday alone, in what is being called a black day.
The proposal follows confirmation yesterday from Oranga Tamariki that 632 jobs are up for disestablishment – a net loss of 447 roles. It would slash the ministry’s size by 9%.
While 235 roles at the education ministry were vacant, the losses represented a 12% reduction in the workforce, the Public Service Association (PSA) said.
Post Primary Teachers Association Te Wehengarua president Chris Abercrombie has described the cuts as short-sighted, lacking sense, and having serious repercussions.
“Sadly, we have seen situations before where Ministry of Education positions are done away with, only to create a gaping hole in essential work and support for schools and teachers further down the track. I have no doubt that this is the case today.”
The union said the total, 1012 net losses, represented the Government’s “heartless and chaotic approach” to cutting public services.
‘‘Today is a black day for public service workers and the children and young people they support, with savage cuts that we believe will not deliver the better outcomes the Government promises,’’ said PSA assistant secretary Fleur Fitzsimons.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said National had campaigned on the cuts, and New Zealanders expected them. Reinvestment back into the ministries would be achieved through the Budget in May.
“Obviously, we’ll be wanting to increase investment in OT and Education, but we want to make sure everything is delivered towards delivering the targets we’ve set ourselves around attendance and academic achievement and upgrading our frontline services,” Luxon said.
The Education Ministry numbers were revealed by the PSA. The ministry’s secretary for education, Iona Holsted, stressed that these were proposed numbers.
“We will need to reduce our work in some areas and remove as much duplication as we can across our functions. We will also continue to reduce our spend on contractors and consultants and travel and meetings,” Holsted said. A recruitment pause would remain.
The PSA said the ministry’s change proposal covered its front line in communities across the country who supported teachers and students.
“This plan includes scrapping 87 jobs in the regions – people doing work including supporting children with disabilities, migrant and refugee children, advising schools on accessing speech and language therapy, lifting student achievement, and helping ensure schools run smoothly,’’ Fitzsimons said.
There was also a net reduction of 38 roles for people supporting learners with disabilities and people who needed learning support, 22 of whom were across the regions, she said.
In a statement, Holsted rejected the PSA’s claims that the proposal would affect services for children. The proposed changes had been designed to avoid impacts on direct services to children, teachers, and principals/leaders, Holsted said.
“The Government has been clear that operational decisions on meeting the required savings targets is the responsibility of each agency. As with all change, the ministry is following a formal change process.
“Final decisions will not be made until after this process is concluded.”
Earlier, Oranga Tamariki said more than 600 jobs would be axed under a proposal that would see a net reduction of 447 roles. The cuts represent a 9% reduction in the ministry’s total staff.
The news was delivered in an all-staff meeting yesterday, led by chief executive Chappie Te Kani, who discussed how Oranga Tamariki would meet the Government’s cost-cutting directive. It will disestablish 632 roles and create 185 new ones. “This change goes to our core as a ministry. It fundamentally moves us away from where we are, towards the kind of ministry we need to be.”
He said the proposal “puts children at the centre of all we do”, and would make the ministry “a place where people are empowered to do their jobs”. The 632 figure includes 70 roles that are vacant.
Oranga Tamariki employs 5100 staff, both permanent and fixed-term. It said 1900 roles were scoped for restructure. While the ministry said frontline staff were not in the scope of the proposal, Fitzsimons argued that it would inevitably affect the front line.
Oranga Tamariki is already facing frontline staffing issues – it was down 160 social workers earlier in March.
Both Oranga Tamariki and the Ministry of Education were explicitly excluded in National’s tax plan from delivering an efficiency dividend, instead being expected to redirect savings “found in the back office into frontline services”, the plan says.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has said that any savings made by Oranga Tamariki will stay in the department to be used for frontline services.
Across the public service and crown entities, the number of roles, staffed and vacant, proposed or confirmed to be disestablished, or have already ended, is calculated to be already more than 3000.
In late February, Ministry of Education staff were told that jobs would have to be cut in response to the Government’s target of 7.5% in savings for their department.