Agency report cites higher turnover rate, 'purposely unfilled vacancies'
New Zealand’s primary workplace health and safety regulator WorkSafe has been struggling with high staff turnover as well as a restructure that has been stalled, as reported in an article by RNZ.
The first restructure saw the cutting of 128 jobs in February. With another restructure ongoing, the agency’s employees are stuck in a limbo while the main union is also raising the possibility of having more job cuts.
The latest quarterly report of the agency noted that the organisation’s People, Health, and Safety risk was still critical because of the uncertainty that came with the firm’s structure, which eventually led to a higher turnover rate as well as “purposely unfilled vacancies,” according to RNZ.
The report further said that staff attrition was running at nearly 30% in the past six months for the three months ending 30 June. However, it noted that another factor that contributed to this was the job cuts in February.
With the overdue second restructure, the RNZ article noted that WorkSafe has been caught up in pre-consultation talks with the PSA union. While WorkSafe stated that the PSA have been “fully briefed” when it came to the expected change proposal, the union said that it was concerned about the fact that the organisation was proposing job losses.
“We do not agree this is necessary. We believe WorkSafe can achieve a more efficient structure without the loss of jobs,” the union shared.
Notably, WorkSafe’s moves when it comes to restructuring and job cuts followed a report detailing a $17-million deficit in the previous year, said RNZ. However, its latest quarterly report found that it managed to reverse the deficit with a $3-million surplus for the year to July.
The organisation then stated that its second restructure proposal will be going out this month and its staff will be the first to know about it, guaranteeing a number of support options that will be available to kaimahi.
