Staff undermined by changes, says Rankin

Staff morale had been harmed by the Government's plans to restructure the Department of Work and Income, chief executive Christine Rankin told a parliamentary committee yesterday.

" My people have been through an enormous amount of change and everyone always worries about what future change actually means," she said.

"It doesn't matter how often you reassure them about that. They've been through a lot of change process and it's painful."

The Government suddenly announced plans to merge Work and Income with the Ministry of Social Policy in April, just a day after Ms Rankin began suing the Crown for $818,000, alleging political interference in the decision not to reappoint her.

Ms Rankin's three-year employment contract expires on July 5.

She was to appear before the social services committee yesterday with Social Services Minister Steve Maharey, but he refused to attend with Ms Rankin because he considered it inappropriate while she was taking legal action against the Crown.

Ms Rankin refused to answer whether she had received a bonus this year because of the department's achievements."I think that that is my business. I don't really want to talk about that."

But she expressed pride in what the department had accomplished during the 11 months of this fiscal year, including a 57 per cent increase in the number of people placed in stable employment and a client satisfaction rate running above 85 per cent.

" ... The organisation has been in the spotlight since the moment it was born literally and I think that's a very difficult situation for staff to work under.

"It's been very difficult to keep their morale high. We've done it but that took enormous effort."

Labour MP Jill Pettis questioned how much credit the department could claim for its achievements given improvements in the economy.

Ms Rankin said the economy had an impact. "But the reality is that if we were in disarray or we were not very well organised to take advantage of that, you would not be seeing the kind of improvement that's there."

Ms Rankin said that she first heard about the merger from the State Services Commission. She refused to answer questions from Act MP Muriel Newman about whether she was "kept in the loop" about the changes, saying the issue was part of her legal action.