The Ministry of Social Development looks to shed 700 staff

Thursday, 23 May 2024

• A further 100 roles will go from the Ministry of Social Development.

• MSD is the second largest ministry, employing more than 9000 people.

• DOC has also confirmed it will lose 124 roles.

The Ministry of Social Development will have at least 712 fewer staff, as it looks to cut costs ahead of the Government’s Budget.

MSD is the second largest ministry, employing more than 9000 people. As part of the Government’s cost cutting drive, it was asked to reduce spending by 6.5%.

On Thursday, it revealed a new proposal to cut a further 97 roles. Those cuts would be on top of 218 voluntary redundancies, and 56 fixed-term employment agreements ending at the end of June.

MSD deputy chief executive Nadine Kilmister also confirmed that hundreds of roles would not be replaced, after staff had left in recent months.

The ministry’s hiring freeze, in place since December, had led to 341 fewer people working at MSD, she said.

Also on Thursday, the Department of Conservation confirmed that consultation on its cost cutting process had concluded.

DOC Director-General Penny Nelson said the organisation would lose 124 full-time positions as a result. It had also been asked to cut costs by 6.5%.

“On top of this, we also need to fund cost pressures of approximately $7m for the next financial year,” she said.

Thursday’s restructure proposal impacted four of MSD’s eight divisions.

The 97 roles, proposed to be cut on Thursday, came from MSD’s legal, HR, finance, technology, information and Strategy and Insights Groups.

Kilmister said there were no plans for restructuring to impact the other divisions - including the Office of the Chief Executive, policy, service delivery, and Māori and partnerships - were not expecting further cuts.

“No further restructuring is planned that hasn’t already been communicated to staff,” she said.

She said the sinking lid policy and voluntary redundancies had achieved cost saving targets in teams such as Policy and Māori Communities and Partnerships.

“For the Office of the Chief Executive, this is a very small team, and cost savings can be met without restructuring,” she said.

Public Service Association national secretary Duane Leo said reducing these teams would superiorly impact the ministry’s ability to work efficiently.

'It’s clear the Government doesn’t care about the quality of service MSD provides to thousands of New Zealanders every day which will suffer when the impact of these cuts finally land,“ he said.

With MSD saying it anticipated reducing its headcount by 712 roles, the public service faced losing more than 5000 roles ahead of the Budget, due on Thursday next week.

Stuff had confirmed that 5053 have been - or are proposed to be - disestablished, as part of the cost savings drive.

All major ministries were asked to make cuts of between 6.5% or 7.5% ahead of the Budget, although not all departments have made those reductions.