Most local govt staff have work

Councils in the South are not joining Invercargill’s in cutting staff pay while they grapple with operating in Alert Level 3 but some employees have been doing different work and costs are being trimmed.

Some Invercargill City Council staff will receive half their wage under Level 3, which can be topped up with annual leave, but other councils are taking a different approach.

Dunedin City Council chief executive Sue Bidrose said staff mostly had been able to undertake their usual roles from home or they were being employed in other ways.

Some were tracing contacts of patients with Covid-19, helping the drive to eliminate the coronavirus in New Zealand.

‘‘The Dunedin City Council is not cutting staff pay or requiring leave be taken, because we have very few people who haven’t been able to be redeployed,’’ Dr Bidrose said.

The council had not renewed fixed-term contracts and had slowed recruitment.

‘‘We are in the fortunate position of being able to redeploy about 15% of staff whose roles are ‘public facing’, and cannot be done remotely, into essential services or other roles during Alert Level 4.’’

Dr Bidrose anticipated this continuing through Level 3.

Many council services would return in Level 2.

Otago Regional Council chief executive Sarah Gardner said all staff had been working during Level 4.

Services such as flood monitoring, drainage maintenance and pollution response were considered essential under Level 4.

‘‘Some ORC staff are also involved in the Emergency Management Otago response to Covid-19 and have balanced this with usual workloads.’’

Other staff worked from home and carried out desk-based duties.

The council was resuming some fieldwork during Level 3.

‘‘We have not reduced pay or asked staff to take leave.

‘‘Instead, we have been flexible about when staff work to enable them to balance work and bubble demands.’’

Gore District Council chief executive Stephen Parry said most full-time staff whose roles were indoors had been working at full capacity.

Level 3 had enabled more staff to resume normal duties.

However, work for some part-time staff could be at an end.

‘‘There are some part-time positions where there’s no short-term prospect of normal duties resuming, and the council is working through options with the staff involved.’’

Staff at the Queenstown Lakes District Council had been paid their full salaries.

Consultants had been asked to do less work, QLDC media and channels adviser Jack Barlow said.

Many staff were putting in longer hours than before the lockdown began, he said.

‘‘For staff that cannot be redeployed, we are considering options for how we might deal with payment to staff in the medium term, which depends largely on when key services such as our sport and recreation centres can be reopened.’’

Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips said all staff would receive full pay during Levels 3 and 4.

More field staff were returning to work this week.

- Grant Miller