Ministry of Education removes just a portion of jobs it intended to cull

Wednesday, 4 December 2024

The Ministry of Education has removed just a portion of jobs it initially intended to cull.

As of September, there were 136 redundancies to date. Overall, the ministry had reduced its full time equivalent (FTE) roles by 271.

Rob Campbell, Acting Leader (Hautū) Corporate, said as of October, the FTE number was 4116 ‒ a decrease of 270.6 since June 2024, including all job changes for any reason.

That did not include vacant roles.

The ministry had a savings target of 11% of its “controllable departmental expenditure”, with Ellen MacGregor-Reid, Acting Secretary of Education, saying that commitment was there and tracking well.

Of the roles that went, the impact was on areas such as policy, operations and a “murky zone in curriculum”.

Earlier this year the Education Ministry was the organisation with the biggest restructure proposal ‒ 750 roles to go.

That then went down to 650, with about 340 of those vacant roles.

In May, it was announced the ministry and the Public Service Association (PSA) union would head to mediation. It closely followed the ministry confirming part of its restructure, understood to be the disestablishment of more than 500 roles so far at the time.

At issue was whether it had properly considered the terms of the collective contract agreement.

In June, the ministry paused its change process after the PSA filed legal proceedings in the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) and the stoush put on hold hundreds of job cuts. Then in July, the ERA ruled in favour of the PSA.

It was thought at the time it would prolong the process by making the ministry consult with the hundreds of people with roles proposed to go, on a case-by-case basis.

MacGregor-Reid said the ministry was still working through the change process and there was still and expression of interest process under way.