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.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
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.
Note:
The Public Service
Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa
New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and
supporting more than 95,000 workers across central
government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health
care and community
groups.
