15 Sep 2017

Restructure to hit low-paying Chch Council jobs

6:11 pm on 15 September 2017

The Christchurch City Council is proposing to cut 85 of its lowest-paid workers in a staff restructure.

Christchurch city council

Photo: RNZ / Conan Young

The positions include many of its frontline employees, such as those at swimming pools or service centres.

It is part of a restructure that will see it re-advertise these jobs and at the same time create an additional 14 positions.

The Amalgamated Workers Union, which represents many of those affected, said there has been a lack of consultation from the council about what it has planned.

Spokesperson Calvin Fisher said the council has been meeting with workers today about the restructure.

"There's an obligation in the two current agreements that cover all of these people to talk to each other in an open dialogue.

"We haven't had one minute of input in to this. We're scrambling to deal with a situation that too many of these people have been through before, post-earthquake."

Mr Fisher said the restructure would also affect the hours worked by hundreds of staff at the council.

The council's head of sport and recreation, John Filsell, said the council needed to realign itself to best meet the needs of the community.

Affected staff would have until the end of the month to provide feedback on the proposal before a final decision was made.

Mr Filsell said the 99 new positions would be operative from the start of next year.

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