Up to 200 jobs going at Ministry of Social Development

John Key. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Up to 200 people face redundancy at the Ministry of Social Development in a "structural change" which has just been announced.

Ministry chief executive Peter Hughes said changes were being made to achieve better efficiency and redirect resources to the frontline.

"The reality of the current economic environment is that more and more New Zealanders are accessing our services," he said.

"We need to meet this additional demand by providing more resources at the frontline."

There would be structural changes but, with the exception of a limited number of specialist roles, frontline jobs would not be affected.

Staff affected would include managers, staff at head office and administrative support roles.

"In a worst case scenario, we are anticipating up to 200 redundancies but I would expect it to be less," he said.

Staff were being consulted.

"We are setting up a dedicated support service for staff directly affected by the changes. This will provide support to each staff member based on their individual needs.

"Redundancies will be a last resort. As an alternative, we will aim to ensure that every person gets at least one good job offer in the ministry or the broader public service."

Prime Minister John Key this morning said he supported a focus on frontline services.

"The important point here is about the allocation of resources from the back office to the front line, we campaigned on that," Key told reporters.

"MSD is a very large employer and when you see the number of front line staff we are hiring, you'll be able to get that in some sort of context."

There was a net loss in staff, but more workers at the front line, he said.

Labour leader Phil Goff said the redundancies showed the Government's talk on saving jobs was hollow.

"A big fuss has been made about preserving 117 jobs through the nine-day working fortnight and in one act they dismissed almost twice that number," he told reporters.

Goff said the Government's jobs summit earlier in the year was window dressing.

`There's nothing in the jobs summit that gives any of us any confidence that jobs are a priority for this government, that people's livelihoods count for anything with John Key or Bill English."

Goff said it was easy to describe people as bureaucrats in a dismissive way.

"A lot of these people will be doing jobs that are very worthwhile, that will have major consequences for the front line. That's what the government isn't telling you at the moment."

- NZPA