Source: PSA
Kāinga Ora, the Government’s social housing agency, has given staff affected just nine days to comment on a change proposal to axe 10 jobs and let workers losing their jobs know in the week before Christmas.
Kāinga Ora released a change proposal to affected staff at 5pm on Tuesday to reduce the Ministerial services team by 10 roles from 22 roles to 12 roles. In May Kāinga Ora cut 620 roles.
Redundancy notices will be issued from Wednesday 17 December with the new structure taking effect from Monday 26 January.
Staff affected by the latest changes have been given only until Thursday 27 November to provide feedback, Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi National Secretary Fleur Fitzsimons says.
The Kāinga Ora change proposal was released to staff the day after the PSA and the Professional Firefighters Union initiated action in the Employment Relations Authority after Fire and Emergency New Zealand gave its non-firefighting staff just two weeks to consult on a 265-page proposal to cut 140 roles.
“The Kāinga Ora time frame is similarly riding roughshod over the rights of workers and treating consultation as a tick box exercise. It makes a mockery of one of the values espoused by Kāinga Ora – ‘Manaakitanga – Putting people first’,” Fitzsimons says.
“This rushed process is another example of the Government’s contempt for working New Zealanders, treating them as disposable commodities rather than people whose views deserve to be taken into account about decisions that will have a significant effect on their lives,” Fitzsimons says.
The proposal is to cut 12 roles in Kāinga Ora’s Ministerial Services team and create two new positions. The team manages core democratic functions such as Ministerial enquiries, Official Information Act requests and responses to Parliamentary Questions.
