Redoing redundancy at TVNZ would be 'upsetting,' says COO: reports

Redoing TVNZ's redundancy process would take a toll on the organisation's people emotionally, according to its chief operating officer, as he faced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) on Tuesday.

TVNZ is at the ERA after the E Tū union accused it of failing to comply with their collective agreement's requirements on consultation process when it stopped production of several shows and cut 68 roles early this year.

During the hearing, TVNZ COO Brent McAnulty was asked what the consequences would be if the organisation redo its redundancy process.

"If that's the decision of the authority, we will abide, but it would come at a lot of disruption to those shows and also the entire news team," McAnulty told the ERA as quoted by Radio New Zealand.

According to the COO, there are people involved the cancelled shows who were "reluctantly looking to move on."

"It would be upsetting for a few people who've said to me they want to move on," he said. "Even dragging this out has caused them concern."

Other potential drawbacks from restarting the redundancy process and re-employing some laid off staff is the further decline of the company's financial position, according to McAnulty.

He pointed out that there is also no guarantee that they would get advertising support if they brought back some affected staff to work on some of the shows.

TVNZ steps to redundancy

The COO said the staff cuts were their last resort to respond to the company's financial problems, after reducing marketing costs and implementing hiring restrictions.

He told the ERA that staff had been informed of the financial problems since July 2023, as well as the need to cut spending in the organisation.

McAnulty confirmed, however, that the union nor the news staff were told when he found out late last year that some shows would likely get cut.

He also admitted to not looking into the requirements under the collective agreements during these processes and said no member of the executive team raised it with him.

The hearing of TVNZ's case concluded on Tuesday after a two-day hearing, with the determination due on Friday.