Frustration media briefed before staff

The Waitaki District Council headquarters in Oamaru's Thames St. PHOTO: ODT FILES
The Waitaki District Council headquarters in Oamaru's Thames St. PHOTO: ODT FILES
A Waitaki District Council staff member is shocked that media were told of job cuts before they were.

Their boss, however, says they should not be surprised by the plan to cut 9% of the council’s 211 fulltime staff.

Roles and departments will go in the next year in a $4.5 million organisational "transformation" under way.

After a confidential staff briefing late on Thursday, a council staff member, speaking anonymously, told the Otago Daily Times they were astounded to find media had been briefed before staff heard their jobs might be on the line.

"None of the staff were aware," the staff member said.

"It’s a little bit frustrating that it’s front page of the paper and we’re not even to discuss it."

The transformation process was initially announced in October last year.

The anonymous staffer said many employees were shocked to arrive at the meeting to find it was about their employment.

They also suggested a lot of information about the transformation previously relayed "is false" and had been couched in a minimising way, including the budget which was "well over $4.5m".

Chief executive Alex Parmley said in a media interview on Wednesday the cost was less than $4m.

He later apologised for "the confusion on that point".

In a statement on Thursday evening he said the restructure followed extensive staff engagement in May "to rethink" its service delivery.

"All staff were invited to offer their thoughts on the proposal and suggest changes, with hundreds of items and suggestions being submitted.

"This week’s new organisation design includes changes made as a result of that consultation."

Many current roles would be replaced by new and different roles in a staged process over the next year.

He said yesterday he hoped that none of the staff "were surprised".

The results of the consultation, final decisions on organisation design and roles had already been communicated "on a number of occasions prior".

The consultation was about the proposed organisation design, including how departments and individual roles at council would be changing, not job cuts.

"This was made very clear in the consultation document that all staff were provided with on May 22."

The "tremendous response" in staff feedback meant they were told earlier this month final decisions and next steps would be put to them on July 18.

Feedback had included emailing the council’s "transformation team" with questions.

Two question and answer sessions on May 29 and June 4 followed an initial briefing.

There were also "numerous meetings" across the organisation, including with individuals. Mr Parmley said that included two meetings with the union in May.

PSA organiser Jon Henning said it represented just over a third of council staff, and representatives attended the briefing on Thursday.

The union understood the council followed "normal procedure" in releasing its final decision.

The union had formally responded to the change proposal.

"We also had without-prejudice conversations relating to several members who may be regarded as more impacted than others," Mr Henning said.

The council has so far declined to publicly release the new organisational structure it put to staff on Thursday.

brendon.mcmahon@odt.co.nz