Hundreds of jobs on the line
Hundreds of public servants have been called into meetings and given notice their jobs are on the line – the first wave of what is expected to be a rolling maul of savage job losses under a Government austerity drive.
In just one day, a series of hammer blows hit the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Primary Industries, between them proposed to lose around 550 positions, while Stuff has learnt the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) has opened up a second round of voluntary redundancies. It will cover areas that were not part of the initial round, which had 111 people take up the offer to leave by the end of this month.
MBIE has been “systematically” disestablishing vacant positions, has a pause on external recruitment and has now opened up consultation for changing its Digital, Data and Insights Group and the Employment Services branch.
Deputy Secretary of corporate services Richard Griffiths said as well as the voluntary redundancies and sinking lid on vacancies, they had already disestablished positions across MBIE in response to the Government’s work programme, including where stop-work notices have been received.
At least 75 positions had been disestablished in relation to the stop work notices.
More than 70 contractors have been transferred to permanent or fixed term positions since July last year.
Across the public service, there has been a constant stream of ministries eyeing job cuts as officials search for savings ahead of the Government’s Budget, tasked with finding areas to cut to save 7.5%.
Yesterday, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) proposed a 9% cut to its workforce - 384 roles.
About 40% of those were vacant positions, meaning approximately 230 people could have their roles disestablished.
In response, the ACT Party said in a tweet on X, which was reposted by leader David Seymour, “Good”. “The number of bureaucrats at MPI increased by 52% – or 1277 – between 2017-23. The average salary at MPI is about $102,000.”
Asked for his response to the tweet, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said it was for Seymour to talk to.
“It is a tough day for people in those government departments.
“We are working incredibly hard to face up to that reality that we have inherited economically, we have a plan in place to get New Zealand to a much better place.“
A large portion of MPI job losses came from biosecurity, with 131 net roles proposed to be cut.
Next came the Ministry of Health, which is looking at decreasing its workforce by 25%, affecting around 180 jobs.
Finance Minster Nicola Willis was confident the affected staff would find other work. “These are skilled, capable people and I am sure that there will be other job opportunities.”
She defended the cuts as necessary. "There are many agencies who have been aware for some time that their levels of back office personnel were unsustainable, they had grown very fast in a very short period of time. And so they had been thinking about how they ensure resources are focused on the frontline and that's what you're seeing here.”
She would be getting estimates of job losses in the public service as part of the Budget process, “but as decisions are still being made, it’s difficult to get an estimate until those decisions”.
It could be in the thousands, Willis said: "I expect that there will be job losses, I also expect that there will be more frontline workers.
“Ministry of Health transformation management director Geoff Short said the proposed changes could affect just over a quarter of the Ministry's positions – “that would include removing vacancies as well as some positions being disestablished”.
“In addition, the proposal would create some new positions that would be available for redeployment.”
Ministry staff were told in DirectorGeneral of Health Dr Diana Sarfati that staff in a meeting yesterday that 25% of roles were likely to be disestablished, according to a staff member who was there.
They feared the cuts would impact the ministry’s ability to function.
“Surely this will affect the ministry’s ability to do its job in this huge amount of turmoil and unrest. People will find it very difficult to be able to adjust to a completely transformed organisation.”
Short confirmed there was a staff updatewhere they were told about indicative timings for upcoming consultation “on a proposal for organisational change”.
“The proposal would create some new positions that would be available for redeployment,“Short said.
A further group of positions may also be affected by proposals for a reporting line change or a change in job title. Staff would be given full details of the proposed changes in the consultation document, he said. The cuts are a proposal so may change. Consultation will run for three weeks from April 5.
“Following feedback from staff and any changes to the proposals, final decisions will be made by June 30. It is expected a new organisational structure will be stood up in August.”