About 30 currently-filled Wellington City Council roles are under threat by a proposed restructure. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The public sector union says 63 jobs are set to be cut at Wellington City Council, with significant changes proposed for many more council staff.
It said 31 of the positions were currently vacant.
Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said hundreds of workers across libraries, parks, recreation, city safety and digital services faced uncertainty, with many more positions proposed for disestablishment.
"These people are committed Wellingtonians who have more to give our city. This restructure would take Wellington backwards," she said.
Fitzsimons said the proposals would mean the loss of specialist expertise in parks, recreation and city safety and would result in unmanageable workloads for those who remained.
"At a time when there is so much concern about the future of Wellington, we oppose this major restructure, particularly so close to the council elections. It is not appropriate to be embarking on re-structure this significant in the pre-election period. It is a constitutional norm that significant work like this does not occur so close to a local election."
The union was urging the council to withdraw the planned restructure.
The council said it would establish 65 roles across the group, resulting in one full-time worker losing their role.
It said the proposal did not impact levels of service to the community and actually aimed to enhance their support to people.
The council confirmed about 30 roles were under threat by the proposed restructure, with a number of these at managerial level.
A spokesperson said following consultation this month, the council would work with staff whose roles were disestablished to find other jobs at the council.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
