PSA union national secretary Fleur Fizsimons says hundreds of jobs are affected by a proposed restructure at Wellington City Council. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The public sector union says 63 jobs are set to be cut at Wellington City Council, with significant changes proposed for many more council staff as part of a restructure.
The union said 31 of the positions were currently vacant and some of the jobs were managerial roles.
Public Service Association (PSA) national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said hundreds of workers across libraries, parks, recreation, city safety and digital services faced job uncertainty, with many more positions proposed for disestablishment.
Fitzsimons urged Wellington City Council to withdraw the planned restructure, coming just weeks before local government elections.
The council's proposed shake up would impact the customer and community business group, she said.
"We will write to the CEO tomorrow morning asking that it is withdrawn," she said in a statement on Monday.
There were a number of dismissals proposed through redundancy.
"Our initial count indicates 63 jobs going, 31 of which are currently vacant across the following teams: Connected Communities, Creative Capital, Park Sports and Rec, Smart Council, Libraries, Archives and Community spaces. There are significant changes proposed to many more jobs.
"These people are committed Wellingtonians who have more to give our city. This restructure would take Wellington backwards."
Fizsimons said the proposals would mean the loss of specialist expertise in parks, recreation and city safety to name a few and would result in unmanageable workloads for those who remained.
"At a time when there is so much concern about the future of Wellington, we oppose this major restructure, particularly so close to the council elections.
"It is not appropriate to be embarking on re-structure this significant in the pre-election period. It is a constitutional norm that significant work like this does not occur so close to a local election."
She said the council's timeline currently had final decision documents being released three days after the local government elections on 11 October, which she called "deeply wrong".
The union would be supporting members during this "challenging time".
"We are closely examining the proposal. We can already see a number of serious mistakes and our members are asking whether it has been written by AI.
"The PSA is also concerned that there is only three weeks' consultation on a 216-page proposal affecting this many workers and services - that is simply inadequate."
The council confirmed about 30 roles were under threat by the proposed restructure, with a number of them at managerial level.
Council spokesperson Richard McLean said following consultation in September, the council would work with staff whose roles were disestablished to explore other opportunities at the council.
