172 Christchurch council jobs to go

Up to 172 Christchurch City Council staff who work in quake damaged facilities are facing the possibility of losing their jobs. Photo / Sarah Ivey

More than 170 Christchurch City Council staff are to lose their jobs as a result of the city's devastating February earthquake.

Council staff employed at facilities badly damaged and which remain closed following the February 22 quake were this week told their jobs were being "disestablished".

The 172 affected staff included 156 based at QEII Park and Centennial Recreation and Sports Centres, 12 at QEII Park Pre-school and four at Our City O-Tautahi and the Canterbury Provincial Buildings.

Many of the affected staff had been working in Civil Defence roles since the earthquake, which is believed to have claimed 182 lives.

Council community services general manager Michael Aitken said as many jobs as possible were being kept, and options for redeployment were being considered. Redundancy would be available for those unable to be redeployed.

"To secure their jobs, staff may have to accept a different role to what they were doing before the earthquake," Mr Aitken said.

"The council will be matching skills with areas where work needs to be done post-earthquake. In a bid to secure as many jobs as possible, the council has also put on hold much of its recruitment while it looks at all options.

"We recognise this is an extremely difficult time for our staff, many of whom are going through personal hardship at this time, but we are certainly aiming to minimise the number of redundancies and to protect jobs wherever possible."

The council employed about 1800 people.

- NZPA