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The government cutting not capping the public service

26/03/2009 12:00:00 a.m.

“The government should come clean and admit that it has moved beyond its policy of capping the size of the public service and is now cutting public service jobs,” says Public Service Association National Secretary Brenda Pilott.

The government has announced it is capping the number of workers, employed in what it describes as core government administration. It has set the cap at 38,859 full time equivalent staff, the number it says were employed in core government administration at December 31, 2008.

“If the cap is supposed to apply from the end of last year, why have several public service organisations that are supposed to be capped been cutting staff?” questions Brenda Pilott.

“The State Services Commission is looking at laying off 22 staff and there are proposals to cut 86 positions at the Ministry for the Environment and 76 at the Tertiary Education Commission.”     
 
“All these organisations are covered by the cap which the government led the PSA, the media and the public to believe would mean maintaining staff numbers not cutting jobs,” says Brenda Pilott.

On September 24 John Key told PSA members attending their national congress that if, elected, he would maintain the “core bureaucracy” saying: “We are going to make do with the resources we have and work to get more value out of it.”

Immediately after the election, on November 14, the New Zealand Herald ran an article headlined “Key rules out slashing public service numbers.” The Prime Minister said the point of the policy was to cap the number of public servants at its current level. “The point is not rising from the starting point.”

And now today John Key is quoted in the NZ Herald as saying National’s plan was to “cap the public service not cut the public service.”

“Jobs are being cut, not capped, in the public service and in the wider public sector, such as TVNZ, where 90 jobs are to go because the government is demanding a dividend,” says Brenda Pilott.

The PSA estimates that so far around 880 jobs are being cut in the public sector through positions being axed and through a sinking lid policy in which staff that leave are not being replaced.

“That’s the number of job cuts we’ve have heard about,” says Brenda Pilott.”There will be more as there’s a rolling series of restructuring and budget reviews sweeping through the public sector.”        

“We are calling on the Prime Minister to rein in his Ministers who are cutting jobs in the public sector when the government is supposed to be keeping New Zealanders in work,” says Brenda Pilott.  

Brenda Pilott says the capping policy announced by the government is complex and will prove difficult to implement and monitor.
 
“The flaws in the capping policy are highlighted by the government’s decision to exempt the police and prisons services from its staff cap but not court staff at the Ministry of Justice,” says Brenda Pilott.

“Our courts are overworked and understaffed and that is already creating a bottleneck in the justice system.

“The bottleneck will only get worse if the Ministry of Justice can’t hire more court workers while the police and the prison service are able to increase their staffing.”

“We’ve highlighted the desperate need for more court staff and asked the government not to include the Ministry of Justice in its cap but the government has chosen to ignore that advice,” says Brenda Pilott.    

To arrange further comment call Nick Hirst 04 917-2028, 027 600-5498   
PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott 027 430 6016

Public Service Association