The Public Service Association says hundreds of backroom council jobs would be lost if the new governance model proposed for the Wellington region was to go ahead.
An independent panel funded by the regional and Porirua City councils, has recommended that a super council set rates and budgets and six local councils look after community services.
It would mean 28 fewer councillors and mayors, and the number of chief executives would be cut from nine to one.
However, the association's secretary Brenda Pilott says the panel has overlooked the impact on staff across the region's nine councils.
"They have talked about councillors - which is actually a relatively small number of people - and they've talked about chief executives, which is again a small number of people.
"But if you add together the total workforce of all of those councils, you're talking about quite a large number of people who live in this region.
"And I think it's illustrative of the problem - that this report has been done and they haven't actually considered what this might mean for the local workforce in the area."
Ms Pilott says 1100 staff were lost in the Auckland restructure and it is likely that hundreds of jobs would go in Wellington.
