DOC downsizing will take out frontline jobs

Further downsizing at the Department of Conservation proves that despite government promises, budget cuts are costing valuable frontline jobs, according to the Public Service Association.

DOC has announced it is cutting 140 positions around the country as part of a shift in organisational focus and in a bid to make up to $9 million dollars in savings from on-going government funding cuts to its operational budget.

The PSA represents more than 1400 DOC staff.

PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott says this latest restructure comes hard on the heels of another review less than two years ago which resulted in the loss of about 100 jobs.

“Government budget cuts and funding pressures mean job uncertainty has become an unwelcome fact of life for DOC staff over the past few years and has led to a loss of capacity in some areas.”

The PSA believes this restructure will affect frontline operations across almost every DOC office with the disestablishment of mainly regional programme manager positions.

“These are not solely desk-bound, paper-pushing jobs,” says Brenda Pilott.

“These people are hands-on managers who spend time in the field organising and planning resources and running frontline activities and programmes such as species recovery or track building. They might have the word manager in their title but they do frontline work and are central to the delivery of DOC’s operations.”

“The government has continued to say that public sector funding cuts will not affect the frontline. DOC has been one of the hardest hit in terms of government budget cuts and it’s reached a stage where it can’t make the required savings without sacrificing frontline jobs,” she says.

The PSA says the actual number of job losses and details of where they are likely to happen isn’t clear at this stage because while 140 positions are being lost, people will be able to apply for other vacant positions or move location.

Brenda Pilott says affected staff have some tough decisions to make.

“They have to decide whether to either up-skill or down-skill just to keep a job, take redundancy, or uproot themselves and their families to take up a role in a different area. It represents significant upheaval and change and a loss to the organisation of valuable expertise, experience and capability which is very difficult to replace,” she says.

The PSA has been part of the review process and has received regularly briefings. It will be holding DOC to assurances that it will try and retain staff where possible and that there will be a genuine consultation process for staff on the restructuring proposal before final decisions are made.

It is also pleased to hear that DOC intends assessing the socio-economic impacts of its proposal on individual communities before committing to any final change.

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