Chief executive Paul Morris revealed his decision for phase two of the "customer focused council" project yesterday, with another round of one-on-one meetings through the afternoon.
Personnel in the affected roles were advised of their meeting times via e-mail late on Tuesday.
It is understood at least two of the now disestablished managers were away at the time of the meetings and subsequent announcement.
Of the positions being axed, one is that of library and museum services manager, which will be replaced with a library supervisor.
The proposed disestablishment of the manager, first reported in October, raised hackles with national library associations, and a petition was created to challenge the proposal.
The disestablishment comes while the council looks to build a new multi-million dollar library.
In an all-staff e-mail, Mr Morris said "contrary to misinformation which appears to be circulating in the public arena it is not my intention to reduce services."
He has also denied the decisions were a cost-cutting measure.
"Council is attempting to use its resources with the utmost efficiency, and to mitigate the effects of increasing labour costs which have contributed to the council exceeding it's budget in this area."
Mr Morris said he was "very aware this change decision is coming less than a fortnight ahead of Christmas, I did consider holding the decision until after Christmas but felt it was better to just get on with the process".
"There has been an overall increase in customer-facing positions and, in particular around the changes at our library and recreation centre, an effort to create a structure that looks outward to our customers and is best-placed to introduce new and exciting services for our district."
Mr Morris said they wanted a world-class library and recreation centre, so they were putting in an over-arching manager to lead improvements.
Current manager roles would become supervisors, so overall positions were not reduced.
They were not removing any customer-facing roles.
In the e-mail, Mr Morris said 33 formal submissions were received and seven individuals had spoken with him directly.
Concerns raised by staff centred around the abilities of supervisors versus managers, increased workload and the ability to deliver excellent service with fewer employees, as well as questioning some roles that have been created.
Today, an insider said: "There's still no real certainty either because the people who have to reapply have to fight for those roles".
The Grey District Council has nearly 90 staff, 44 of whom are union members, and the Greymouth Star understands a legal representative for the union is looking at yesterday's announcement.
The restructure started 18 months ago, and four management roles have already been disestablished.
The council did not respond to questions today.
- Meg Fulford
